2004 freedominfo.org Global Survey Results - Croatia
Text from the freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World, by David Banisar (updated 12 May 2004)

Article 38 of the Constitution of Croatia provides for freedom of expression and prohibits censorship, and provides a right of access to information to journalists. (1)

The Act on the Right of Access to Information was approved by the Parliament on 15 October 2003 and signed by the President on 21 October 2003. (2)

Any person has the right to information from bodies of public authorities, including state bodies, local and regional governments, and legal and other persons vested with public powers. Requests can be either oral or written. The public authorities are required to respond in 15 days.

There are mandatory exemptions for information that is declared a state, military, official, professional or business secret by law or personal information protected by the law on data protection. Information can also be withheld if there is a "well-founded suspicion" that its publication would cause harm to prevent, uncover or prosecute criminal offenses; make it impossible to conduct court, administrative, or other hearings; make it impossible to conduct administrative supervision; cause serious damage to the life, health and safety of the people or environment; make it impossible to implement economic or monetary policies; or endanger the right of intellectual property.

Appeals of withholdings are to the head of the competent body of the public authority. If that is unsatisfactory, complaints can be filed with the Administrative Court. There are sanctions available against both legal and physical persons for failure to make information available and criminal penalties for intentionally damaging, destroying, or concealing information.

Requestors can also demand that information that is incomplete or inaccurate be amended or corrected.

Public authorities are required to appoint an information officer and develop a catalog of the information that they possess. They must publish in the official gazettes or on the Internet all decisions and measures which affect the interests of beneficiaries; information on their work including activities, structure, and expenditures; information on the use of the act; and information relating to public tenders. They must also create a report on the status of implementation. The government must publish an annual report on the overall implementation of the law. Draft acts and secondary legislation and information on public meetings must also be published.

The State Office for Public Administration is in charge of implementation. The Act has gone into effect but implementation has been slow. Information officers for the ministries have not yet been appointed and most public official are not aware of the Act and its requirements. Civil society groups are proposing amendments to the act to include proportionality and public interest tests to the law. (3)

Croatia signed the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters on 25 June 1998. The Environmental Protection Act of 1994 allows for some publicity and access to environmental information.

The Law on the Protection of Personal Data adopted in March 2003 sets rules on the collection and use of personal information. Individuals can use the act to access their records.

In 2001, the Interior Ministry provided access to the subjects of 650 files of the nearly 40,000 files created by the Agency for the Protection of the Constitutional Order (SZUP), former President Franjo Tudjman's secret police which operated in the 1990s. It claimed that the 650 were cases were the agency has monitored people without justification and the rest of the files were on paramilitary leaders or leaders of rebellions. (4)

Under the Law on Archive Records and Archives, documents are available after 30 years. Documents relating to national security, international relations and defense are sealed for 50 years. Documents which contain personal information are sealed for 70 years. (5)

Notes

1. Constitutional of the Republic of Croatia, 2001. http://www.usud.hr/htdocs/en/the_constitution.htm

2. Act on the Right of Access to Information, 15 October 2003. http://www.ijnet.org/FE_Article/MediaLaw.asp?UILang=1&CID=188304

3. Legislative Proposal of Amendments to the Act on the Right of Access to Information. 28 March 2004, http://www.transparency.hr/dokumenti/zakoni/izmjene_i_dopune_eng.pdf

4. Serbian agency says 126 journalists on Tudjman's secret police files in Croatia, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, November 12, 2001.

5. Law on Archive Records and Archives http://www.osa.ceu.hu/bridge/archivalregulations/croatia.htm