Sarajevo / Brčko, May 22, 2025 – The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association and Free Media Help Line (FMHL) request the Assembly and Government of the Brčko District, as well as the competent Legislative and Legal Commission, to urgently launch a public debate on the Draft Law on Access to Information in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to enable citizens, the professional public, the media and civil society organizations to participate in the debate and, with their comments and amendments, improve existing legal solutions in line with European standards.
The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association believes that the 15-day deadline for amending the Draft Law is not sufficient to create a proposal that will enable citizens and journalists to freely enjoy the right to free, simple and fast access to public information, with clear and accessible appeal procedures in the event of denial of information. The omission of a public debate, as a comprehensive mechanism for collecting the opinions of the professional public and beneficiaries of the right to access public information, is contrary to democratic standards of transparency and inclusiveness in the process of creating new legal solutions.
The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association welcomes the intentions of the proponents of the Law to regulate this area in accordance with EU standards, which include proactive disclosure of information, its free provision, and the obligation to conduct a proportionality and public interest test. The draft Law states that the institutions of the Brčko District are obliged to provide the requested information regardless of the established exception “if justified by the public interest”. Normative prioritization of the public interest over possible harm that could arise from the disclosure of information is of utmost importance for the work of the media and investigative journalists, who have often been denied information about public officials and the ways in which they perform their duties, with vague references to the protection of privacy and an unacceptably broad list of so-called personal data.
At the same time, the The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association finds it completely unacceptable that this Law does not provide for the possibility of filing an appeal against an authority that has withheld information of public importance. The impossibility of a second-instance appeal procedure before the institutions of the Brčko District, in addition to being contrary to international standards, will require journalists and all other citizens to initiate expensive court proceedings in order to obtain the necessary information. The aforementioned provisions could also open up space for Brčko politicians and public officials to hide information about their work, the decisions they make and the ways in which they spend public money.
Because of all the above, the Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association expects the authorities of the Brčko District to launch a public debate on the Draft Law on Access to Public Information and a dialogue with all interested stakeholders in the field of freedom of information and freedom of access to public information as soon as possible.
The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association