City Assembly of Sremska Mitrovica, 2024–2026
The Assembly doesn't even answer the Ombudsman.
Translated from the Serbian version of 26 September 2026. The Serbian text is authoritative: Skupština ne odgovara ni Zaštitniku građana.
No reply: The Assembly has not answered the Ombudsman's recommendations of 2 October 2025.
Next step: the Assembly's answer to the freedom of information request, deadline .
From August 2024 the then editor of a local outlet asked to film the public sessions of the City Assembly of Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia; the Assembly let him attend but not record. In October 2025 the national Ombudsman found the refusal had no clear basis and recommended that the Assembly publish its own recordings and session notices. The Assembly never replied, even after a reminder, and the non-compliance was entered in the Ombudsman's annual report for 2025.
In brief
In August 2024, Živko Gvozdenović, the author of this site and then editor-in-chief of the local outlet Koraci, asked the City Assembly of Sremska Mitrovica (Skupština grada Sremska Mitrovica) for permission to film its public sessions. According to the Assembly's own statement, its first answer, by phone, was that the newsroom had to be registered as a company. To a second request, in September, the Assembly's secretary replied that a journalist may attend but not film. To the formal request of 30 September 2024, Gvozdenović says, he never received an answer; the Assembly says it replied by email on 6 December 2024.
In February 2025 the Assembly invoked its Rules of Procedure: sessions are recorded by the competent administration, and no media outlet is allowed to film them. The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications merely passed that position on, in March 2025. The Ombudsman (Zaštitnik građana, the Protector of Citizens) received Gvozdenović's complaint in February 2025.
On 2 October 2025 the Ombudsman found that in 2024, under the Rules of Procedure then in force, the Assembly had denied the right to film without a clear basis or reason. It recommended that the Assembly broadcast recordings of its sessions made by its administration, through local media or its own website, and also publish notices of sessions, with the proposed agenda, on its website. The Assembly did not respond to the recommendations. Nor did it respond to a reminder of 25 February 2026. In July 2026 the Ombudsman informed Gvozdenović that the Assembly's failure to act had been entered in the Ombudsman's annual report to the National Assembly for 2025.
Meanwhile, in October 2025, in a recording from one session, the man at the lectern, whom the author recognises as the President of the Assembly, answers an interjection that five citizens had applied to attend: “You can't apply. You just sit there.” („Ne može da se prijavi. Samo vi sedite tu.“) The recording was made by a journalist of the InMedija portal, at the author's request.
Koraci no longer publishes. The dispute remains. On 22 September 2026 Gvozdenović sent five letters: questions to the Assembly, a freedom of information request, an initiative to the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, a request to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and a proposal that the Ombudsman bring proceedings before the Constitutional Court.
What next: the deadline for answering the freedom of information request expires on . The answers are published here in full.
Key documents
Each document has a permanent number and its own page, in Serbian, with the scan and the file's SHA-256 hash. The titles and lines below are an unofficial translation.
- D29Letter from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications on the complaint about the ban on filming sessions(page in Serbian)
The Ministry says it wrote to the Assembly's secretary and passes on the reply: under Article 176 of the Rules of Procedure, sessions are recorded by the competent administration, so no media outlet may film. The Ministry gives no assessment of its own. Signed by a state secretary.
- D30Report on the case with recommendations, Ombudsman, ref. 27162(page in Serbian)
The Ombudsman finds that in 2024 the City Assembly denied the complainant the right to film sessions without a clear basis or reason and did not adequately inform the public about its work. It recommends broadcasting recordings made by the administration and publishing session notices with agendas. Deadline for a response: 60 days.
- D32Recording of part of the 12th session of the City Assembly of Sremska Mitrovica, 2 min 54 s(page in Serbian)
Phone recording from the hall. The speaker at the lectern answers the remark that five citizens had applied to attend. The date, 28 October 2025, is visible on the screen in the hall. The author's copy was downloaded from the internet and has no metadata on when it was recorded.
- D33Letter from the Ombudsman on the recording of 28 October 2025, ref. 30597(page in Serbian)
Reply to the submission of 29 October 2025. The Ombudsman does not analyse the recording but points to the Rules of Procedure, to councillors' right to raise breaches of procedure, to the dismissal of the Assembly President and to oversight by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government.
- D34Ombudsman's notice that the City Assembly failed to act on the recommendations, ref. 25480(page in Serbian)
The City Assembly did not inform the Ombudsman of any action on the recommendations, even after a reminder of 25 February 2026. The failure was included in the Ombudsman's Regular Annual Report for 2025, submitted to the National Assembly.
- D36Freedom of information request to the City Assembly, UE-SG 02/2026(page in Serbian)
Request for the audio and video recordings of Assembly sessions, the minutes of the 12th session of 28 October 2025, citizens' applications to attend and the acts governing the recording of sessions.
Full documentation (in Serbian)
The complete case, with every claim labelled as document, my testimony ormy conclusion, the chronology, all documents and the log of corrections, is on the Serbian case page. Paragraphs there have permanent numbers (¶ 1.14 is the fourteenth paragraph of part one); please cite those. A browser's translate function gives a rough reading; the Serbian wording is what counts.