Agency submits report: Will anyone face criminal liability for illegal recordings of arrests

The report on personal data protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2015, submitted by the Agency for Personal Data Protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should be on the agenda of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 19, writes the Patria news agency.

A heated debate is expected on this topic, especially regarding the segment related to the recording of arrests and police operations that have appeared in the media.

- Turning criminal proceedings into a public spectacle harms both private and public interest. The question arises as to how certain media outlets have exclusive access to specific information and whether there is a form of corruption behind it. Recordings of arrests of suspects, in completely private settings, even in their underwear, cannot constitute a public interest. Searching and arresting suspects represents an interference with their privacy for which the police have authorization. The issue is that state interference, through police authorities, in the right to private life regarding the processing of personal data must be lawful. The execution of police powers also involves the processing of personal data, but this must also be in accordance with the principles of lawful personal data processing.

This means that police powers are applied in a manner that has the least harmful consequences for the data subject. It is not entirely clear whose recordings of the arrests are. Are they police recordings? If so, many questions arise, such as what is the legal basis and purpose, how were they made available to the media, etc. If they are media recordings, other questions arise: how did the media get to the arrest, the exclusivity of certain media outlets in accessing information, the report states among other things.

We recall that the Deputy Director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), Đuro Knežević, after the dismissal of the convicted former SIPA director Goran Zubac, banned the recording of operations, i.e., the bringing in and arrest of suspects. The practice during Zubac's time was different. This move by Knežević was welcomed by many SIPA members, especially because they are aware that the recording of operations was heavily used for political pressure and damaging the reputation of certain individuals being brought in.

Incidentally, during the time of Goran Zubac and his reign of terror in SIPA, recordings of arrests were constantly published only of Bosniaks and Croats, while the arrest of Serb suspects passed without media fanfare, even though dozens of former members of the Republika Srpska Army, accused of the most monstrous crimes during the Serbian aggression against BiH, were arrested, and whose names and appearance the public deserves to know.

But now the question is whether anyone will be held accountable for all the published recordings, as recordings of arrested individuals such as Živko Budimir, Šemsudin Mehmedović, Jerko Ivanković Lijanović, Kemal Čaušević, and many others, whose spectacular arrests were published at lightning speed, are still circulating on the internet.

- The Agency has no doubt that public authorities are obliged to inform the public about their work, including through a proactive approach. However, this must be balanced between the right to information and the right to personal data protection, and there are standards for this. A distinction should be made between public interest and public curiosity, as these are not synonymous terms. What is the subject of public curiosity does not necessarily mean it is a public interest as a measurable value. On the contrary, sometimes the public interest is opposed to public curiosity, the report states.