FOL: Surveillance draft – law to protect citizens, not leaders

Pristina, 05 December 2012 – FOL has been attending with concern the developments regarding the publication of several surveillance videos of some politicians. Besides the vocabulary, entirely non-political and non – institutional that we heard from officials on the tapes, insulting citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, denigrating the media and threatening the country’s higher institutions, we have also seen a lack of responsibility in relation to the development of processes and policies of these officials. Such communication by public officials continues to impact negatively on the credibility that citizens should have in public institutions.

Being faced with an unprecedented scandal in Kosovo, the Kosovo Government approves the draft law on wiretaps. The approval of this law, in the current situation, clearly shows that these institutions and those public officials do not have the will to protect people from possible tapping, but only themselves and in this way cover their scandals.

As a reminder of this, Movement FOL has proposed since April 2009 drafting such a law, due to the fact that at that time tapping the people of Kosovo were present and it was an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty about what institutions offered at the time. Despite meetings and explanations that we had done, since it was not a problem of the Government of Kosovo, which means that the public officials were not being tapped, had ignored our request. And now when these officials have been the subjects of tapping, the Government is hasting to draft the law. Same, like 3 years ago, the Government of Kosovo lacks the seriousness in relation to citizens and institutions.
Therefore, being a sensitive situation for the safety of the citizens of Kosovo, FOL requires that the draft law on tapping should undergo a broad public debate before it goes to the Assembly. Movement FOL also requires accountability and responsibility of officials involved in these scandals, as the tapping in question have seriously damaged the credibility of public institutions and the integrity of the state of Kosovo.