The bill treats confidentiality as a rule and not as an exception, it is a blow to democracy and citizens' right to be informed about the work of public bodies and to investigate possible unlawful activities, GONG president Suzana Jasic said.
HND vice president Zdenko Duka said the bill was an attempt to introduce censorship through the back door because such a law would deal the hardest blow to journalists, who provide information.
Jasic said the hurry to pass the bill raised the question if somebody perhaps wanted to hide some information from the public in election year.
The bill is contrary to the principle of openness and insight into the work od state bodies and that if passed, only the most persistent citizens would fight to prove their right to information, she said, adding that if the bill was passed in its current form the law on the right of access to information would become an empty word.
Jasic said the bill gave too many public bodies and officials authority to classify data, and warned that the bill should include the test of public interest and the test of proportionality.
She said that a survey conducted by GONG, an NGO for election monitoring, had shown that certain information was already being declared confidential or unavailable without legal footing, mostly information related to finances and public spending.
GONG calls on the lawmaker to amend the data confidentiality bill with a view to preserving the right of access to information and instituting an information commissioner, said Jasic, adding that GONG did not dispute the need to keep confidential some information related to national security and public health.
Duka said he expected the bill to be radically improved before adoption.