Serbia’s Commissioner for public information Milan Marinovic told N1 on Thursday that his office has received more complaints so far this year than in all of 2018.

“There has been resistance to the law on free access to information for years and in the first 11 months of this year there have been 1,500 more complaints than in all of last year,” he said.

Marinovic said that state institutions are becoming increasingly closed and are withholding information. “Also, more people are asking for information,” he said and warned that there is a lack of understanding that things should not be hidden.

“Sometimes, information which should be available on web sites are being hidden such as employee numbers. That information should be public because the population should know who budget funds are being spent,” he said and expressed concern over the fact that requests for information are being ignored.