Freedom of Information requests have increased throughout the Western Balkans and “transparency may be improving in formal terms” but institutions have found new ways of denying public access to information in practice, warns a new report (opens pdf), launched on Tuesday, based on BIRN journalists’ work during 2025.
“Delayed responses, administrative barriers, limited enforcement and different institutional practices continue to affect the public’s right to know at the same time,” Gentiana Murati, deputy regional director of BIRN, told the launch event.
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The report analysed 1,740 FoI requests submitted by BIRN journalists in 2025 in six Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.
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“Administrative silence [non-responsiveness to FoI requests] continues to affect a substantial share of requests (28.16 per cent in 2025), while unreasoned refusals, non-responses, lengthy appeals procedures, and poor implementation of binding decisions continue to undermine the effectiveness of access-to-information regimes,” the report explains.
According to the report, “despite generally robust legal frameworks, regulatory ambiguity, the expansive use of exceptions, and the risk of legislative backsliding threaten to weaken transparency safeguards and limit effective public access to information”, adding that there were also attempts to make legal amendments that would “expand exemptions, strengthen restrictions related to data protection, and introduce potential procedural obstacles that may hinder access to information in practice.
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Megi Reci, author of the report, said it “reveals a paradox: while information is being requested more often and granted more frequently than ever before, institutional silence, delays, and widespread disregard for legal obligations continue to undermine the very purpose of transparency”.
Reci noted that the investigations featured in the report “show how access to information is directly connected to public safety, environmental protection, public spending, and democratic oversight. Secrecy does not merely obstruct journalism, it weakens society’s ability to prevent harm and hold power to account.
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