Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. – paragraph 1, Article 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights.

Towards ensuring proactive transparency and free access to public information, a kick-off meeting was held in the premises of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Skopje to mark the start of the preparation of Analysis of Case-law of the Administrative Court and High Administrative Court within the framework of the Law on Free Access to Public Information (2019-2023).

The purpose of this Analysis, supported by the EU and Council of Europe, is to collect and analyse representative samples of cases from the above-referred domestic courts. During the meeting the representatives of the Agency for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information (hereinafter: the Agency), as partner for this activity, and the Council of Europe consultants exchanged on the methodology, the content and the expected results of the Analysis. During the discussions, Mr Petar Gajdov, State counsellor for cooperation with holders of information, international cooperation and projects at the Agency, stated: “in the course of preparation of this Analysis it is important to understand and take into consideration the balancing between the private information vs public information, i.e. the private vs the public interest.”  

The Council of Europe consultants, in co-operation with the Agency, will analyse the selected representative cases after the adoption of the new Law on Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information, adopted in 2019. The Analysis, expected to be delivered by the end of the year, is expected to provide key findings and recommendations on how to improve free access to public information and identify related revisions in the domestic legal framework.

This activity is implemented under the joint European Union and the Council of Europe action “Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in North Macedonia” (PRO-FREX), part of the programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye, which enables the Beneficiaries to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with European standards