Transparency and Freedom of Access to Information

Recently, increased political activities have continuously raised public awareness of the importance of information in public domain.The main intention is to establish full transparency of the work of all public bodies and make all information of public importance easily available, with a list of exceptions on, when provided by law, it is possible not to publish certain information, .Modern tendency is to apply the public interest test, even in cases that are provided as exceptions, that is, for the competent authority to determine whether in a specific case the public or partial interest, or some other protected value provided for by law (e.g. public safety) is more important.The latest tendency is to make sure the authorities are committing to proactive transparency, ie. to self-initiated publication of data provided by law, such as public procurement contracts, reports on budget execution and legal regulations.The idea is that public authorities publish all information of public importance using the advantages of modern technology (internet presentation), instead of citizens constantly submitting requests for the same, thus contributing to citizens being informed about work in the public interest, which will consequently encourage the political activity of all citizens. In order to establish this, as a rule, it is necessary to legally regulate ways of punishment of responsible persons, but also to strengthen independent institutions responsible for monitoring the implementation of relevant regulations.Free access to information in Bosnia and Herzegovina is regulated by the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, which exists at the state and entity levels, and it is important to note that there are no detailed proactive obligations yet.Law on Free Access to Information, examples of violations: