The Swedish Offentlighetsprincipen

Thanks to David Gerard via the ORG list for for alerting me to the Finnish-Swedish Offentlighetsprincipen in the context of the EU Commission's proposals to change the rules regarding public access to EU documents. The 1996 newsgroup posting by Jon Noring that David refers to has a full explanation of the almost sacred Swedish constitutional principle relating to freedom of access to public documents.

"Swedish law has a legal principle called "Offentlighetsprincip". I've enclosed an edited private e-mail from a Swedish individual (not Zenon, and who prefers to remain anonymous), wherein it describes "offentlighetsprincip". It's an amazing principle...

The offentlighetsprincip is divided in two parts: the right for whoever it
may be, to be present as listener at court and other public proceedings. The
rule is from the 15th century, and is of course no oddity at all. Most legal
systems state the same. But the other part is it: the right, whomever it may
be, to anonymously and without giving any reason, "immediately and on the
spot" read public papers in courts and federal and municipal agencies, and
get copies, and publish them irrespective of the wishes of the original
author.

The offentlighetsprincip is part of the constitution of the Kingdom of
Sweden. It has been since 1766; thus the offentlighetsprincip for public
papers is 22 years older than the US constitution. But as Sweden has
prefered to rewrite instead of using amendments, it has since been rewritten
in 1774, 1809, 1946 and 1976. There is of course also elaborate rules, a
thick law, when public papers must be classified. But the basic principles
from 1766 have never been changed. And when the computers came, data
information became as public as information on paper.

The offentlighetsprincip is divided in two parts: the right for whoever it
may be, to be present as listener at court and other public proceedings. The
rule is from the 15th century, and is of course no oddity at all. Most legal
systems state the same. But the other part is it: the right, whomever it may
be, to anonymously and without giving any reason, "immediately and on the
spot" read public papers in courts and federal and municipal agencies, and
get copies, and publish them irrespective of the wishes of the original
author.

The offentlighetsprincip is part of the constitution of the Kingdom of
Sweden. It has been since 1766; thus the offentlighetsprincip for public
papers is 22 years older than the US constitution. But as Sweden has
prefered to rewrite instead of using amendments, it has since been rewritten
in 1774, 1809, 1946 and 1976. There is of course also elaborate rules, a
thick law, when public papers must be classified. But the basic principles
from 1766 have never been changed. And when the computers came, data
information became as public as information on paper...

And why is the offentlighetsprincip revered by even the poorest citizens?
Because in other countries the journalists are depending on leaks, but when
a whole group of politicians, judges or bureaucrats all are corrupt, there
aren't any. But in Sweden all journalists, it's part of their professional
pride, dig up the facts nevertheless...

With such an effectivness, the offentlighetsprincip is of course hated,
hated, hated among politicians and bureaucrats, but they can't even show the
slightest hint of that opinion, beause in that case, they won't be
reelected. It would be a political suicide."

Read the whole post. Can you imagine, for example, the Speaker of the House of Commons pursuing a court case to keep details of his and other MPs expenses private if such a revered constitutional principle existed in the UK?