Institutions, not transparent with media and civil society

The journalists ' work has not even facilitated the Law on Access to Public Documents, which is not being implemented. While the law envisions that institutions must respond to the demand for access to public documents within 7 days of submitting requests, there is often no response from institutions.

Problem remains that even when access to these public documents is offered, not all required information is provided.

That journalists face difficulties getting information from country institutions and tells KP and Kosovo Journalists' Association head Gentiana Begolli-Pustina.

It stated how much of the transparency of the institutions concerns the media the situation is far from what it should be.

Begolli says that the rulers are willing to provide interviews and talk about specific topics, but that, according to her, when answers to contracts with large sums are required, they always hesitate to respond to journalists' interest.

There is no problem with access or access to information that is generally public, but we have great difficulty getting information that we especially have to do with contracts. We know that for providing these information, at least they are or are allowed to have access to journalists to media officials, whether in local or government institutions. So it's good that our journalists are actually doing an extremely good job in informing the public, and they're not based on media offices at all, because they know exactly that most of them work to say what their own bosses are trying to say, therefore, whether the ministers or mayors. So, fortunately they are finding other channels and are able to inform, make very good themes, inform the public about what is happening in us”, she says.

She says even the law on access to public documents is not being respected by domestic institutions, citing the fact that the media for years have failed to receive the country's prime ministers' spending bills.

A helping hand to journalists, Begolli says it is the law on beacons, which is helping media to highlight numerous abuses concealed by institutions.

AGK in April this year will publish the report, where all the difficulties journalists face will be made public.

In addition to the media, civil society organisations also claim that the country's institutions continue not to be transparent, however, say there is an improvement compared to previous years.

Florent Spahija from the Kosovo Democratic Institute said institutions continue not to be transparent when access to different tenders is required.

He says there are times when KDI's requests for access to public documents have been denied, while he points out there have been cases where access to available documents have been half allowed.

Our <x0 institutions compared to previous years are more transparent, in terms of handing in documents, but not transparent for handing in documents that potentially hide corrupt links. There were times when we asked for access to public documents that weren't offered and there were times when we asked for access and offered, so we have two differents. The cases we haven't always been offered, we've considered that something might be deleted and we've gone further, so we've sent them to the ombudsman and some cases even to court. But in the cases that were offered to us, then we saw that the documents that were offered were ever complete, they were sometimes incomplete, so they offered half approaches, not offering all the information that was required. Now the confrontation that we've been dealing with I believe that even the media each face, especially in cases where they have research on certain issues and we have research on certain issues, especially in public tenders, the biggest challenge is that we have access to documents or the establishment of” tenders, Spahija says.

He cited the tender for the “Arba Xhaferi” highway where the file was offered only to see it but not physically. Another case of Spahija mentions when they have been searching for two years from the Central Election Commission for access to unsummed financial reports of political subjects, but have never managed to obtain the required information.

As for the role of media offices in public institutions, Spahija says that from these offices you can get information that has no political influence, while according to him if the demand has political implications for getting the answer is very difficult.

Meanwhile, Artan Demhay from the organization Get up, says there are improvements in access to public documents, but it points out there are institutions that continue not to allow access to access documents.

In cases where institutions have not responded positively to their demands, Demhaja says they have turned to the ombudsman institution.

“The situation could be a little better than the previous years as far as access to public documents is concerned, because in most cases you have positive answers and institutions give you information or documents that you ask for. But it depends on the documents we ask for, it's a category of documents that are easier to be accessible because they're not very sensitive, but then there's a category of documents and information that are required and that are more sensitive and there is greater hesitation within institutions to provide access. But the situation is better, but there are institutions and there are information that requires continued resistance on the part of institutions not to give us access. Finally we have a continuous request with the Ministry of Education that we're looking for some information related to private universities in Kosovo, which is that we're still having to say violations of legal deadlines and also resistance from the Ministry of Education to give us access to this”, he says.

And although media offices in public institutions would have to help the work of media and organisations to offer access to the information they seek, Demhasa says these offices only play the role of media mediators and departments in which information is required.

The office for information, at least on the basis of our own experience, is more than a means of communication or mediation between us and say departments or whoever has those documents that we ask for. Now, the information office is just a mechanism that accepts our request, then the office takes it to a higher mechanism in the hierarchy that has the document. Then, the information office depends on the head of that department whether or not he wants access to those documents we ask for. So they're effective in accepting requests and submitting requests where they should be, but then other issues don't depend on the Information Office”, he says.

Journalists, civil society organisations, as well as other people, in cases where they are not allowed access to official documents have been addressed to the ombudsman institution.

Even the ombudsman, Hilmi Jashari, claims there are more than 100 complaints that have been addressed to this institution in terms of not allowing access to official documents, and in 80 per cent of the cases, he said it has been decided on good journalists.

The legislation has not been implemented enough for access to official documents, but it's also a phenomenon that hasn't been used enough. We have a large double this year of complaints that refer exactly to access to official documents, and in exactly the majority come from journalists. If I'm not mistaken, there are over 100 complaints that are recorded in the ombudsman's institution for access to official documents, and if I'm not wrong these statistics speak for 70 per cent or 80 per cent of them have only been elected positively so far. So, we've been very successful in choosing these cases to always understand journalists”, he says.

The Law on Access to Public Documents guarantees rights to each person, without discrimination on any basis, to have access to public documents, produced, accepted, maintained or controlled by public institutions, and the right to reuse public sector documents.