INT. OFFICIALS PRESENT BH BILL ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

SARAJEVO, June 28 (Hina) - The international community's high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina and the head of OSCE's Mission to BH on Wednesday presented in Sarajevo the draft of a bill on freedom of information, which is to be forwarded into parliamentary procedure. The bill has to be enacted at both the state and entity levels, and should formulate for the first time in BH the right to access information in the possession of bodies of authority, not only by the media, but by any personal. High Representative Wolfgang Petrisch said it was very important to ensure a completely free access to information in a country like BH. The bill was prepared for months by a task group of 12 domestic and international experts, and binds all public bodies of authority to provide with data any individual requesting it. The bill singles out three types of information which can be excluded from access, namely those containing data of interest for national security or defence, data protecting sensitive commercial information, and information protecting a person's privacy. Petrisch said he expected BH's parliament and two entities to act responsibly towards the bill, and that for the time being he did not consider imposing it. (hina) ha mm