Prelesnik, who also worked as deputy information commissioner (2005-2008) before taking up the post in parliament, was nominated by President Borut Pahor and appointed in parliament in a 43:1 vote despite a boycott of the vote by all three opposition parties.

Prelesnik, born in December 1968, graduated from the Ljubljana Faculty of Law in 1992 and passed the bar exam three years later. She ran her own law firm between 1997 and 2002, after which she worked for the ex-Ministry of Information Society.

Under Slovenian law, access to public information and personal data protection are basic human rights set down in the Constitution.

The Information Commissioner's Office was established in 2003 as a guardian of access to public information, but its powers expanded in 2005 to include the protection of personal data.

The office has 30 employees and its workload has been growing steadily.

Already in 2006 it received 504 complaints and issued 101 decrees related to public information, while it also handled 231 complaints against violations of data privacy and launched 180 inspections.

By 2013 the number of public information-related complaints rose to 610 and of those concerning privacy protection to 712.

The first ten years of the office, which has been focusing on greater transparency in the use of public funds, has also brought some milestone decisions in understanding the right of the public to get access to information which some would prefer to keep away from public eyes.

In one such decision in 2009, the information commissioner allowed access to a contract between the Health Ministry and a pharma company supplying flu vaccine and in another to part of the contract between the Maribor municipality and a private contractor for the city's contentious speed traps