TI Croatia: Court Decision Against the Prime Minister Confirms the Bad Communication of Govt and Public

Transparency International Croatia greeted and commended the decision of the Administrative Court which accepted the arguments of the private lawsuit started by Jelena Berkovic, a journalist, against Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, on charges of violation of the right to access to information. “Every responsible government has to provide access to information about its work to all citizens, not just the reporters, and the courts have the obligation to protect the citizens if that right has been restricted”, says Zorislav Antun Petrovic, President of TI Croatia, in his statement for the media. Petrovic emphasized that the fact that Administrative Court confirmed the right of the citizens to access information held by public administration bodies is very encouraging. However, TI Croatia is worried about the fact that it had to take a whole Court procedure and decision for a person to prove his/her right to information. As a reminder, Jelena Berkovic sued the Government over the decision to restrict her access to Governments Office of Internal Supervision monthly and quarterly reports, as well as the final report for 2003, as well as all reports for the first half of 2004. These reports are submitted by the Office directly to the Prime Minister. TI Croatia believes that the Court decision actually proves the lack of proper communication between the Government and the public, having in mind that the Government could have easily avoided providing this information using the loopholes in the legislation, instead of keeping silent to all repeated requests by Berkovic to get the information she sought. TI Croatia hopes that the Government will respect the Decision and respond Berkovic in the appropriate deadlines, thus demonstrating goodwill for improvement public communication.