The OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) representative for media freedoms, Miklos Haraszti, compiled a report on the "Access to information by the media in the OSCE region: trends and recommendations".
His survey consists of four chapters: 'Freedom of information laws', ' Classification rules' (What is a secret?)', 'Criminal Sanctions' and 'Protection of Sources'.
The survey says that the trends towards openness are positive but that OSCE member-states are too secretive.
In the section about Classification Rules, it is said that "unfortunately, many countries retained the right to classify a too wide array of information as 'state secret'. In fact, the majority of the OSCE participating States have not yet adjusted their rules of classification to the FOI (Freedom of Information) principles, that is, they disregard the primacy of the public's right to know."
In this section it is recommended that for the media it is very important that classified information had a short "life cycle".
Croatia was mentioned as a country in which the current and proposed laws on secrets do not set any firm time limits.
Apart from Croatia, Hungary and some countries in central Asia are mentioned in the group of states that keep information secret for far longer than its sensitivity requires.
On the other hand, Croatia together with a score of OSCE members has been mentioned as having good practices in protection of journalists' sources.
According to the report "in these states journalists cannot be ordered to reveal their confidential sources, or public-interest scrutiny is provided."
In this context Belgium has been cited as setting the best model in "a free standing law on a comprehensive system of protection of sources".