Campaign - We have the right to know

Nine years after the Act was passed on the right to access to information, one of the key anti-corruption less than half of Croatian citizens know that the law exists: only 47.5 percent of them. It shows the results of opinion polls conducted for Transparency International Croatia conducted by Promotion Plus 

3rd and 4th September on a representative sample of citizens. On the positive side, however is that in the last five years, the percentage of citizens who are aware of this law is constantly growing: in 2007 it was little more than a quarter, or 29.5 percent, was known to him. 

It also is encouraging that half the people who have heard of the Law on Freedom of Information known to have the right to seek information from all public authorities and companies owned by them. In other words, 23.7 percent of Croatian citizens know exactly what rights the law provides them. The most interesting threads are funding projects from the budget, which are interested in 19.3 per cent of respondents, followed by data on social welfare (17.7 percent), condition and maintenance of municipal infrastructure (15.3 percent), utility charges and taxes from the jurisdiction of the city (15 2 percent), work by government representatives at all levels interested in 11.5 percent of the population, and data on education are the most interesting for them to 11.4 percent. However, despite their interest only 10.8 percent of the requested information from the public authorities, and of that number, only 29.8 percent of them were satisfied with the response. It's still an improvement over the 2008, when only 4.6 percent of citizens requested information, of which only 26.8 percent of them got completely appropriate deal.

All this shows that the public authorities in Croatia should put more effort in the promotion and implementation of the law on access to information and establish successful communication between government and citizens and thus provide a more efficient management of public resources and minimize the risk of corruption. If we want to create the prerequisites for the successful implementation of this law is necessary to continuously educate citizens and provide resources for high-quality work of an independent body that monitors implementation of the law on access to information. 

Transparency International Croatia (TIH) will be from 12 September to 1 October for the sixth time implement the action "We have a right to know" part of which is to promote the Law on Freedom of Information. The main objectives of the action to inform citizens about fundamental features of the law on access to information at the info points in Croatian cities and to encourage public authorities to make greater efforts to inform citizens and promoting public funding forthcoming election campaign.