Montenegro: 2017 Amendments Seriously Undermine the Law on Free Access to Information

Access Info Europe and MANS called on the Montenegrin government to undo its 2017 amendments to Law on Free Access to Information (originally adopted in 2006) in order to bring it back into line with international standards. In an analysis of the Law, Access Info and MANS signaled that a particular concern is Article 1, newly added in 2017, which contains a series of class exclusions such as information about parties in judicial and administrative proceedings, and “information that must be kept secret” under rules on confidentiality as well as information originating from or exchanged with international organizations or other states. The introduction in 2017 of exclusions related to business secrets and intellectual property is also already causing problems in practice with public bodies claiming business secrets to deny access to information. You can find more information on the analysis and other concerns about the law here.

Source: Access Info/Mans