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On the occasion of the marking of International Right to Know Day, a panel which was organised by Information Commissioner Anamarija Musa, Ph.D on 25 September 2017 in Kino Europa entitled “Are You Using Your Right to Information?” was held with the purpose of discussing the possible reasons as to why, in the Republic of Croatia, the right of access to information is not used more frequently or more efficiently as a political and a civil right, especially for the purpose of research in the academic community and in the media, as well as for advocacy purposes on the behalf of associations.

The panel, intended primarily for right of access to information users, was opened by the Information Commissioner with a presentation entitled “You have the right to know: How can the Information Commissioner assist you?” in which she pointed out the Commissioner’s achievements and activities to date which have been aimed at strengthening associations’ and the media’s capacities, but also at educating all citizens on this Constitutionally guaranteed right. And so, in the period between 2014 and 2016, 20 trainings were held for users in which 286 participants were involved, as were 14 public events aimed at promoting the right of access to information.

“In the period between 2013 and 2017, we resolved over 2,800 user complaints. Complaints on the behalf of associations and journalists unfortunately only comprised of a small part this, less than 20% of all complaints. Still current are the issues of public spending, decision-making and the influence of external stakeholders in this process, corruption issues, as well as work efficiency and regularity in management. Therefore, we invite journalists and civil society representatives, as key users of the right of access to information who can raise important questions in regards to governance and public policy issues and encourage social change, to use the tools available which are published on the Information Commissioner’s website www.pristupinfo.hr, as well as to use the tools available on public authorities’ webpages,” she stated, placing a particular emphasis on the usefulness of the published analytical monitorings (studies) and pamphlets (http://www.pristupinfo.hr/dokumenti-i-publikacije/ – the User Guide publication, and the pamphlets Step by Step – Realize Your Right to Information and  Active Citizens – Let’s Take Part in Decision-Making!). The Information Commissioner also called for the use of the Public Authorities List, the Decisions and Opinions Search Engine, the Open Data Portal and the e-Consultation Portal applications, and also invited all to follow her on Twitter.

Speaking of future activities, the Information Commissioner emphasised the creation of a special newsletter for the media, the launching of the European Social Fund project through which video materials and webinars will be created for the media, and announced the Government of the Republic of Croatia’s submission of the initiative for accession to the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents and to the European Charter of Local Self-Government on the right to participate in local government affairs.

Subsequent presentations were given by guest speakers who use the right of access to information i.e. who create databases based on publicly available data, among who were Dr. Daniela Širinić of the Faculty of Political Science’s Centre for Empirical Research in Political Science who presented the “Political Priorities in Croatia 1990 – 2016” database project, H-Alter (Association for Independent Media Culture) journalist Toni Gabrić who spoke about the issue of access to information from a journalistic perspective, and programmer Filip Rodik from Code for Croatia who demonstrated an example of open data use for research purposes through a visualization of financial allocations to associations.

Jelena Berković from GONG spoke about the current project, which is being conducted in co-operation with Code for Croatia, of collecting information on the last three years of the Croatian Government’s travel expenses for official travels. She also spoke of activities aimed at opening a register of real owners, the need for lobbying, the proactive publication of information on meetings held by politically exposed persons, and the imperative of creating information on meetings which are held at the highest political levels (however, there are no written traces of them and information about them cannot be subject to requests for access to information).

The panel and debate was moderated by Tomislav Klauški, a journalist from 24sata, and representatives from the media, civil society organizations and the academic community contributed to the debate.

 

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