(Podgorica, 11 April 2012) – MANS yesterday and today organized a number of info stands for citizens, in order to familiarize them with the Law on Free Access to Information. The info stands allowed for the sharing of materials that would enable citizens to more easily seek information from state and local institutions.
Yesterday, we organized info stands in the municipalities of Plevlja, Žabljak, Bijelo Polje, Mojkovac, Berane and Rožaje, while today they were organized in Bar, Ulcinj, Herceg Novi and Kotor. Tomorrow info stands will be organized in Cetinje at 10h and in Danilovgrad at 14h in the main city squares. The project within which MANS is organizing these stands in all municipalities is supported by the Delegation of the EU in Podgorica within the context of the project “You Have a Right to Know!”
In all cities, residents showed great interest to learn in which way their firms were privatized (and that are currently destroyed), how they were led to bankruptcy and what the earnings were of the bankruptcy overseers and trustees. They were also interested in learning how much of state money is being earned and spent by their chosen representatives and for what purpose.
Citizens submitted dozens of request for free access to information and once again showed their interest in using the Law on Free Access to Information, and to learn different types of information which are related to government work (which is part of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Montenegro and numerous international documents). Citizens showed support for MANS’ efforts to make the government’s work more transparent and expressed the desire to more actively get involved in this process.
Nevertheless, at the same time when citizens are expressing an increasing need to use the Law on Free Access to Information, the Government of Montenegro is attempting to adopt a new Law that would severely curtail the amount of information that is accessible.
Even though the Montenegrin public would never have known about the most egregious cases of wild development like the Zavala affair, and the devastation of lands like Lipci, the Government intends – by adopting the new law – to prevent similar revelations in the future. At the same time, the intention of the Government is to prevent the public from learning which functionaries are illegally getting rich and who made decisions contrary to the public interest. These are the types of affairs that MANS has uncovered dozens of times by using the Law on Free Access to Information.
We believe that the Government of Montenegro will not succeed in adopting a new law (that is worse than the previous one), since citizens are more interested in knowing how the former Prime Minister Đukanović received millions in credits, or who is flying the government’s official plane, than it is in the government’s interest to hide these facts.
In the process of Montenegro’s EU integration it is unacceptable for the Government to limit transparency in the state, which has been recognized by all the experts that gave their opinion concerning the new Law on Free Access to Information. We believe that the European Commission, as well as numerous other international organizations, will insist that Montenegro must adopt a better law, which will further promote the principle that access to information should be the rule, while limitations are rare and justifiable exceptions.
