28.09.2011.

Ministry of defense receives the award for the best bulletin on work

Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovacwas awarded today by Commissioner for the Protection of Public and Personal Data of the Republic of Serbia Rodoljub Sabic awards as a recognition in the category of public authorities, on the occasion of 28 September – the Right to Know Day.

The Ministry of Defense’s bulletin was proposed for the award by a Belgrade NGO Center for Security Policy. This kind of prize has been awarded for the first time this year.

"It is in the process of reform and transition where the system of values is most difficult to change, to overcome the prejudices that are in us, and to finally overcome some clichés in thinking that exist in a variety of jobs for many years for us" - said Minister Sutanovac during his address on receiving the award. He stressed that Serbia can only preserve its tradition through modernization.

"The existence of independent state authorities is crucial for the citizens of Serbia, but which greatly lifts the burden off the back of the Ministry of Defense and me as the main responsible in the Ministry. We managed to change the cliche of "military confidential secrets", therefore I wish to express my gratitude to the people who worked on the informing bulletin, and this award is not only for Ministry, but also for all those involved in its manufacture of the units to organizations and sectors within Ministry. I believe that we will continue on that course, and this is most rewarding as it is an encouragement to see that we are still successful, especially because our system was long considered to be very rigid and closed to the public eye, "said Sutanovac.

The Minister pointed out that Serbia is in a better position than many EU member states that do not have their ombudsman and commissioner for the protection of public and personal data.

This year's winners of the award was chosen by the Commission for the recognition for improving the right to have free access to information, whose members are representatives of the Coalition for Access to Information, journalists' associations and academia, which evaluated the work of all important public bodies in the promotion of freedom of access to information.

For his contribution to promoting the right to free access to information and transparency in the category of the highest authorities, the Commissioner presented the recognition of the National Assembly, to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic. In the category of important public bodies the award was presented to the National Bank of Serbia, and it was received by the Governor Dejan Soskic. In the category of provincial public bodies, on behalf of the Secretariat for inter-regional cooperation and recognition of local government has received the Provincial Secretary Tomislav Stantic, and in the category of local public authorities award was received by Deputy Mayor of Krupanj, Sasa Bogdanovic. In the category of judicial authority, on behalf of the Appellate Court in Novi Sad, President Slobodan Nadrljanski received the award.
The speeches were Thomas More, Deputy Head of OSCE Mission to Serbia, Nils Ragnar Kamsvag, Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, William Infante, UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Serbia, Milan Markovic, a representative of Prime Minister and Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Government and the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic.