"Our proverbial unreadiness to accept the international democratic heritage as our basic need, rather than accepting it only as a form which is often offered and even more often imposed, is also confirmed by two obvious facts related to the Freedom of Access to Information Acts. 

 

The Acts themselves - since we do have three Acts at three levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in essence are not much different - are not the result of the local initiative or intellect, just as are not the numerous seminars, workshops and round tables organised just before this Act was passed and during the first couple of years after it was adopted. Thus far, mostly foreign intellect, international organisations and foreign money have stood behind it. 

 

Local participants of different trainings and seminars sometimes did not even know why they are invited, or why this Act is so important. On one occasion, a municipal official openly asked: Why, when we have so many new laws, do you tell us only about this one (?!). In the beginning, the journalists were perhaps the most enthusiastic, but this soon, and not entirely justifiably, dwindled, when they became aware of all the technical limitations to their profession. 

 

Training sessions for high-level officials, as well as journalists, and most often the local authorities' information officers have not entirely been fruitless. Curiosity and the interest of citizens, who are the reason that such laws exist, nowhere in sight during the first and second years, today are, however, becoming a political reality to the extent to which they cannot be ignored and which the authorities cannot off-headedly underrate. 

 

Training sessions have not been without impact, particularly in terms of the executive authority as a whole and the executive authority at the municipal level. With all the difficulties and weaknesses, the municipal authorities which are the closest to the citizens and, as a rule, control the most sources of information in which the citizens are interested, are best organised and prepared. The majority of questionnaires and research initiatives, including this one presented here, as well as experiences of the Federation BiH Ombudsman, confirm this as well. It is true that even today there are public authorities who do not receive even a minimal number of requests per year, some do not even receive a single request, but it is also true that a vast majority of public authorities - government, ministries, municipalities, courts, public companies, public institutions, institutes and agencies - do get tens, even hundreds of requests. 

 

The process of establishing a significantly new relationship between the authorities and the citizens has commenced in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well, and regardless of how slow and imbalanced, this is unstoppable. Now that seminars, workshops, and round tables are behind us, though they would be welcome even at this time, practical education is underway. It is underway on newspaper pages and on air, on radio and television programmes - which discuss good and bad practice - as well as in everyday communication between the public and the authorities, according to the usual pattern 'citizen-authority-ombudsmen'."