The OSCE Mission in Kosovo and the Information and Privacy Agency (IPA) concluded a series of five regional workshops for over 100 municipal officials from municipalities across Kosovo on the topic of balancing the right to privacy and access to public documents.
The discussions focused on the challenges concerning personal data contained in the municipal documents, which risk being disclosed in the process of provision of access to official data. Participants presented concrete cases arising from such situations such as publication of the municipal medical subventions lists and access to the data collected through public spaces surveillance cameras. The panel, composed of IPA experts, addressed the questions, providing municipal officials with answers on how to handle the balance of the rights to privacy and access to public information.
The IPA Head, Commissioner Krenare Sogojeva-Dermaku, said, "There is a thin line between the right to privacy and access to public documents, which is not always easily detectable. Therefore, balancing these two rights is of vital importance in establishing clear and accurate standards, based on best practices of the enforcement of these rights."
Commissioner Sogojeva-Dermaku invited the participants to promote pro-active publication of official information on their websites and assignment of municipal officials on protection of personal data, which are still missing in a number of municipalities.
To enhance understanding of this sensitive task, Ali Topalli, municipal official responsible for access to official data, Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje municipality, suggested that IPA explains the balancing of the right to privacy and the access to public documents also to the other side in this process, the requester of information: the general public, CSOs and media. "This will help them understand the whole process and refrain from filing complaints in the situations when the access to official information was denied in order to protect the personal data of an individual," she/he said.
Using the input collected from these workshops, the OSCE Mission, in co-operation with the IPA, will draft the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on balancing the privacy and access to public documents, which will serve the municipal officials as a guiding tool in the situations arising from the conflicting relation between the right to privacy and data-access.
The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is mandated to protect and promote human and community rights, as well as democratization and public safety sector development. It supports the IPA in promoting the right to privacy and access to public documents and enhancing professional capacities of public officials, guaranteeing this way greater transparency towards the public and ensuring at the same time that their privacy rights are not violated in this process.
