The legal framework guaranteeing freedom of information in the six Western Balkan countries remains strong on paper but its practical enforcement continues to fall short amid “administrative silence”, bureaucratic hurdles and political resistance, a new report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, has revealed.
Launched on Monday, the report is based on BIRN journalists’ work during 2024 and provides a comprehensive analysis of Freedom of Information, FOI, practices across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
BIRN journalists filed a total of 1,015 FOI requests across the region last year. While there were some improvements compared to previous years, the report found that transparency remains elusive.
“Compared to previous reports, some improvement was detected when it came to public institutions’ responses to BIRN journalists’ FOI requests,” the report noted, pointing to a quantitative increase in responses.
The rate of full responses rose modestly to 55.86 per cent, while the share of unanswered requests — so-called “administrative silence” — dropped significantly from 56.7 per cent in 2022 to 23.35 per cent in 2024.
However, nearly half of all requests still ended in rejection, partial responses or silence, a tactic that remains widespread to avoid accountability. The problem was particularly acute in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Over the years, BIRN’s reports have documented a consistent pattern of FOI requests being neither formally rejected nor answered, with authorities resorting to silence, delays, irrelevant responses or complex bureaucratic obstacles. These practices effectively deny journalists access to public information.
“BIRN journalists reported frequent institutional obstruction, such as excessive bureaucratic requirements, procedural delays and deliberate misdirection. These barriers, combined with weak appeal mechanisms in some countries – notably Serbia – often render legal guarantees meaningless in practice,” the report explains.
The report also highlighted increasing hostility toward journalists, including legal intimidation through strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) and institutional non-cooperation, especially when journalists investigate sensitive topics such as corruption, environmental damage and AI surveillance.
Political will for genuine transparency remains limited across the region. Even when reforms are introduced, they often fail to produce swift results. The report cited examples such as Bosnia’s Brčko District, North Macedonia and Serbia, where legal reforms were initiated in 2024 but have yet to demonstrate tangible improvements.
Montenegro has yet to complete reforms launched four years ago.
Oversight bodies meant to enforce FOI laws are frequently underfunded, understaffed and lack true political independence. This means public institutions that refuse to comply with the law often face no real consequences.
“Across the region, public institutions continue to exploit broad legal exemptions, often citing data secrecy, confidentiality clauses or ongoing investigations to withhold information, even in cases of high public interest,” the report highlighted. “This trend is exacerbated by the uneven enforcement of FOI laws, with oversight bodies frequently under-resourced and lacking effective sanctioning mechanisms.”
Recommendations
The report called on governments to promote transparency by:
- Proactively publishing information and engaging with the media
- Reforming legal frameworks in a transparent way
- Digitising and centralising FOI processes
- Protecting journalists from retaliation, including banning and penalising SLAPPs and other forms of intimidation
Independent FOI institutions were urged to strengthen enforcement by advocating for tougher laws, holding institutions accountable, prioritising journalists’ complaints and investing in staff capacity-building.
The report also encouraged journalists and media associations to pursue strategic litigation and to document and publicise obstruction by producing reports or databases tracking public institutions’ responses to FOI requests. Investing in legal teams and training was also advised to better protect journalists’ rights.
The findings were unveiled at a launch event that gathered journalists, the report authors, institutional representatives, donors and civil society experts committed to advancing democratic accountability in the Western Balkans.
The launch featured:
– A five-year retrospective on FOI developments in the region
– Presentation of key findings from the 2024 FOI report
– Country-level reflections shared by BIRN journalists
– A panel discussion with institutional representatives on improving FOI practices
Institutional panelists included:
- Slavoljupka Pavlović, Representative of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Serbia
- Plamenka Bojcheva, Director, Agency for the Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information, North Macedonia
- Krenare Sogojeva Dërmaku, Commissioner, Information and Privacy Agency, Kosovo
- Biljana Božić, Head of Department, Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information, Montenegro
- Edin Ibrahimefendić, Legal Advisor, Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Despite slow progress, the report concludes that sustained pressure from journalists, civil society, and independent institutions is crucial for ensuring that freedom of information becomes a genuine right rather than an empty promise across the Western Balkans.
The event was supported by the Austrian Development Agency-funded project “Paper Trail for Better Governance IV.”
You can read the full report here.