PM: Data collection to now be "transparent"

PM: Data collection to now be "transparent"

BELGRADE -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić has said that amendments to the Law on the Security-Information Agency (BIA) "should provide for transparent data collection."

Vučić told reporters at a gathering in Belgrade on Thursday that the amendments were adopted at the request of the Constitutional Court of Serbia and the office of the citizens' ombudsman.

He added that it was "important that there is transparency and that the data collection process is controlled so that those institutions that serve to protect human rights are also satisfied."

"In Serbia, everyone thinks they're being eavesdropped on and that they're very important. I guess this is something that is usual among Serbs and has been going on for centuries, even when eavesdropping devices did not exist," the Serbian prime minister was quoted as saying.

The government on Wednesday adopted the amendments to the Law on BIA that were last year challenged by the Constitutional Court.