A requester filed a complaint with the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection against a violation of the right of free access to information of public importance. In the complaint, the requester stated among other things that a public authority, more specifically a court, made access to information conditional on his payment of costs of document reproduction in an amount which exceeded the necessary amount and essentially amounted to a court fee.

The Commissioner gave the following opinion on this specific case:

A public authority may not make access to information of public importance conditional on the payment of any fees, except in cases where the amount of necessary costs of issuing copies of the documents containing information of public importance exceeds 500.00 dinars, in which case a requester must pay 50% of the necessary costs as a deposit before being allowed access to the information.

Furthermore, a public authority, more specifically a court, cannot make access to information conditional on the payment of a court fee under the provisions of the Law on Court Fees in a procedure it conducts according to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, because the former does not apply in this procedure.

Rationale

Article 17, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 120/04, 54/07, 104/09 and 36/10) stipulates that access to a document is be granted free of charge, while a copy of a document containing requested information is issued against reimbursement by the applicant of the necessary costs of reproduction and if such copy is sent to the requester, he/she will also be required to reimburse costs of sending. According to paragraph 3 of this Article, the Government passes a list of reimbursable expenses on the basis of which authorities calculate the above costs.

According to the Regulation on the Amount of Necessary Costs of Issuing Copies of Documents Containing Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 8/06), the List of Reimbursable Expenses Establishing the Amount of Necessary Costs of issuing Copies of Documents Containing Information of Public Importance stipulates that, if the amount of these necessary costs exceeds 500.00 dinars, a requester is required to pay a deposit in the amount of 50% of necessary costs according to the List of Reimbursable Expenses before provision of information.

Article 16, paragraph 1 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance stipulates that a public authority must without delay, or within 15 days of receipt of a request at the latest, inform a requester whether it holds the requested information, grant him/her access to the document containing the requested information or issue or send to the requester a copy of the document. Paragraph 5 of the same Article stipulates that a public authority must among other things inform the requester about the amount of necessary costs of reproduction of documents together with a notice on allowing insight in documents containing the requested information or a notice on issuance of a copy of the documents.

The above provisions imply that, together with a copy of a requested document, a public authority must submit to a requester an order for payment of fee in accordance with the Regulation on the Amount of Necessary Costs of Issuing Copies of Documents Containing Information of Public Importance and the List of Reimbursable Expenses establishing the amount of necessary costs, which constitutes an integral part of this Regulation. Thus, a public authority may not make access to information of public importance conditional on the payment of fee, except in cases where the amount of necessary costs of issuing copies of the documents containing information of public importance exceeds 500.00 dinars, in which case a requester must pay 50% of the computed necessary costs as a deposit before being allowed access to the information. Furthermore, as set out in the provisions of Article 17 of the Law quoted above, a public authority cannot make access to information conditional on the payment of a court fee under the provisions of the Law on Court Fees in a procedure it conducts according to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, because the former does not apply in this procedure.

Number: 07-00-02515/2010-03 of 30 May 2012