Freedom of Files requests possess increased at some level of the Western Balkans and “transparency would possibly maybe maybe very well be bettering in formal phrases” but establishments possess found unusual programs of denying public acquire entry to to files in practice, warns a weird describe, launched on Tuesday, in step with BIRN journalists’ work at some level of 2025.
“Delayed responses, administrative barriers, restricted enforcement and diversified institutional practices proceed to possess an impact on the public’s lawful to clutch at the identical time,” Gentiana Murati, deputy regional director of BIRN, urged the open tournament.
The describe analysed 1,740 FoI requests submitted by BIRN journalists in 2025 in six Western Balkan worldwide locations – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.
“BIRN’s FoI demand files from 2022 to 2025 shows a clear surge in journalistic say all around the spot, accompanied by unhurried beneficial properties in approval charges [for FoI requests] (from 38.03 per cent in 2022 to 58.22 per cent in 2025). However this upward pattern masks a stubborn structural actuality: files would possibly maybe maybe very well be requested more continuously and granted more continuously, but acquire entry to is mute routinely disrupted.
“Administrative silence [non-responsiveness to FoI requests] continues to possess an impact on a gargantuan piece of requests (28.16 per cent in 2025), while unreasoned refusals, non-responses, prolonged appeals procedures, and dejected implementation of binding choices proceed to undermine the effectiveness of acquire entry to-to-files regimes,” the describe explains.
In response to the describe, “no matter on the total sturdy apt frameworks, regulatory ambiguity, the gargantuan say of exceptions, and the risk of legislative backsliding threaten to weaken transparency safeguards and restrict efficient public acquire entry to to files”, adding that there were also makes an try to build apt amendments that would possibly maybe “prolong exemptions, crimson meat up restrictions linked to files protection, and introduce doable procedural barriers that would possibly maybe hinder acquire entry to to files in practice.
“On the identical time, journalists all around the spot describe that existing exemptions are continuously interpreted broadly or utilized selectively to disclaim acquire entry to to files, particularly in politically comely conditions, while public-interest exams and proportionality assessments are continuously unnoticed,” the describe adds.
As an illustration, in Kosovo “in a variety of conditions, establishments justified refusals by claiming that the requested documentation changed into once portion of ongoing investigations by the Prosecutor’s Attach of enterprise” or changed into once “instruct files”.
In Montenegro, BIRN journalists were continuously denied acquire entry to by claims lack of administrative means. There were also conditions the build aside the Agency for Non-public Files Security and Free Get entry to to Files upheld BIRN Montenegro’s complaints in elephantine, but when acquire entry to changed into once mute denied by the establishment.
In North Macedonia, in step with the describe, “the Issue Price for Prevention of Corruption denied requests linked to alleged wrongful certification of a public legitimate, citing interior most files protection and ongoing prosecutorial proceedings. The guidelines changed into once provided after enchantment.”
Megi Reci, creator of the describe, stated it “unearths a paradox: while files is being requested more continuously and granted more continuously than ever sooner than, institutional silence, delays, and well-liked overlook for apt obligations proceed to undermine the very motive of transparency”.
Reci illustrious that the investigations featured in the describe “display how acquire entry to to files is straight linked to public safety, environmental protection, public spending, and democratic oversight. Secrecy does now not merely impede journalism, it weakens society’s means to prevent damage and keep energy to sage.
“When establishments can overlook legally binding choices with on the subject of no penalties, oversight mechanisms lose their authority and public trust erodes,” she stated.