North Macedonia’s State of Emergency Weakens Institutions’ Transparency

Both the institutions and those requesting information say that for now, problems are often solved in mutual agreements that allow for a delay of a few days, enabling institutions to cope.

North Macedonia's law on freedom of access to public information does not envisage what should happen to such rights in extraordinary situations like this one.

Some of those seeking information are worried that some institutions may say that the deadlines to respond to FOIA requests should be frozen in the pandemic, and should only start to expire after the state of emergency is over. So far, no testimonies suggest that this has actually happened, however.

Delays instead of rejections:

North Macedonia's central bank. Photo: BIRN

North Macedonia passed a new FOIA act in 2019, which cut the deadlines for institutions to provide access to information from 30 to 20 days.

The law came into full force at the start of this year, once the team at the Agency for Protection of the Right of Information, which is responsible for complaints when institutions fail to do their duties, was fully formed.

The government insists that although it has a right under the state of emergency to pass decrees with the force of a law, it has no plan to restrict access to information.

"We won't make changes. Transparency and access to public information are particularly important in this state of emergency," Justice Minister Renata Deskoska told BIRN.

Despite that, institutions offer plentiful reasons why they can't provide anwers on time.

These range from claims that the staff responsible for the information are working from home, are at home parenting a small child or are taking days off.

The Center for Civil...