Recently, we have seen a very disconcerting development in the world regarding how information of different kinds is valued and used. As "truth" is being increasingly questioned, one possible remedy is the right of access to official documents. This is the subject studied in this article. Such access constitutes an important element in our democratic society by providing citizens and the media the means to control their government. In Sweden, this right of access might also bring about detrimental effects for privacy, or personal integrity, however, due to the stipulations of the constitutional law, the Freedom of the Press Act. As will be outlined in this study, the meanings attributed to various expressions related to the right of access are unclear, so too are the boundaries that regulate the creation of official documents that may be requested as per the Freedom of the Press Act. This uncertainty could carry implications for personal integrity. The meanings and creation of official documents are thus at the heart of this investigation.
The purpose of the study is to enhance our knowledge of enablers of, and obstacles to, individuals' awareness of how information about them in Swedish public authorities was handled and might be accessed by others. The concept self-information awareness developed for the study was therefore at the core of the linguistic–historical analysis that was carried out on twelve Swedish Government Official Reports on large public registers and personal integrity published 1987–2017. The main conclusion from the investigation is that the possibility of individuals being aware of how information about them was handled by the Swedish authorities and might be accessed by others seemed very limited. The linguistic analysis carried out in the study therefore needs to be supplemented by research into the material legal possibilities for individuals to gain such awareness.
The purpose of the study is to enhance our knowledge of enablers of, and obstacles to, individuals' awareness of how information about them in Swedish public authorities was handled and might be accessed by others. The concept self-information awareness developed for the study was therefore at the core of the linguistic–historical analysis that was carried out on twelve Swedish Government Official Reports on large public registers and personal integrity published 1987–2017. The main conclusion from the investigation is that the possibility of individuals being aware of how information about them was handled by the Swedish authorities and might be accessed by others seemed very limited. The linguistic analysis carried out in the study therefore needs to be supplemented by research into the material legal possibilities for individuals to gain such awareness.
Recently, we have seen a very disconcerting development in the world regarding how information of different kinds is valued and used. As "truth" is being increasingly questioned, one possible remedy is the right of access to official documents. This is the subject studied in this article. Such access constitutes an important element in our democratic society by providing citizens and the media the means to control their government. In Sweden, this right of access might also bring about detrimental effects for privacy, or personal integrity, however, due to the stipulations of the constitutional law, the Freedom of the Press Act. As will be outlined in this study, the meanings attributed to various expressions related to the right of access are unclear, so too are the boundaries that regulate the creation of official documents that may be requested as per the Freedom of the Press Act. This uncertainty could carry implications for personal integrity. The meanings and creation of official documents are thus at the heart of this investigation.
In The Swedish Black Box, historian and archival law expert Anna Rosengren proposes a model for the Swedish principle of public access to official documents. Having found that models used in archival science were not entirely applicable on the Swedish case, concepts from black box theory were proposed to shed light over the Swedish principle of public access to official documents. Black box theory is used when a system is not directly observable, and knowledge about it must be obtained through the analysis of the relation between input brought to the system, and the output emanating from it. From a literature study on archival science research, Rosengren had identified seven different factors as having an influence on the creation and release of official documents. These factors were combined with concepts of black box theory into a model, the Swedish Black Box, to shed light over the principle of public access to official documents in Sweden. The high number of factors having an impact on the creation and release of official documents makes it hard to predict the total amount of accessible documents at a specific point in time, i.e. the "system" cannot be directly observed. The article also describes a test of the model using the theoretical case of a pupil handing in a text for assessment to the teacher in 2003 and 2016, respectively. The analysis showed that changes occurred in two factors, resulting in more official documents being accessible towards the end of the period. As the factors were related to technology and routines, not to legislation, the effect on the creation and release of official documents was difficult to predict. The Swedish principle of public access to official documents, therefore, seems to resemble a black box.
This study investigates how the balance was drawn between openness/the principle of public access to official documents, and privacy/personal integrity. The empirical material consists of legal texts on Swedish national archival regulation 1987–2004, and a "linguistic-historical analysis" was applied to answer research questions related to the scope of documents to archive, and to benefits and drawbacks of openness and privacy respectively. The Archival Law of 1990 is aligned with the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act – celebrating 250 years in 2016 – through the term "official documents". Such documents, whether containing personal data or not, are accessible to everyone unless protected by secrecy regulation. The Archival Law and the Freedom of the Press Act thus have potentially far-reaching effects on privacy, although this aspect has received considerably less attention than the impact on openness. Exploring the development of the Swedish archival regulation is therefore of great interest. The study shows that the scope of documents to archive was made gradually larger during the period. This happened through the transfer from "archival material" to "official document", and through the increasingly emphasised presumption for preservation of documents. As a result of this development, the principle of public access and, more specifically, the archives, were described as invaluable to democratic government. The linguistic analysis shows that the meaning of "the principle of public access to official documents" (offentlighetsprincipen) changed over time, implicating that the meaning must not be taken for granted. Benefits and drawbacks related to openness and privacy were identified in Swedish and international archival science research and compared to those in the empirical material. Arguments in the material were mainly oriented towards positive aspects of openness. Benefits of privacy as being vital for democracy were entirely absent. With one exception, in-depth discussions on drawbacks of openness and privacy were also absent. The short answer to the issue of balance between openness and privacy in Swedish archival regulation 1987–2004 is that very few attempts were made to strike such a balance. Theories proposed by various researchers – the centurylong tradition of openness in Sweden, the difficulty to introduce privacy legislation "in a country where publicity has reigned supreme", and a view of democracy as based on the community rather than on the individual – may help explain this situation. ; The study was made as part of a project financed by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), "Privacy, the hidden aspect of Swedish democracy. A legal and historical investigation about balancing openness and privacy in Sweden", nr 2015-1057.
This study investigates how the balance was drawn between openness/the principle of public access to official documents, and privacy/personal integrity. The empirical material consists of legal texts on Swedish national archival regulation 1987–2004, and a "linguistic-historical analysis" was applied to answer research questions related to the scope of documents to archive, and to benefits and drawbacks of openness and privacy respectively. The Archival Law of 1990 is aligned with the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act – celebrating 250 years in 2016 – through the term "official documents". Such documents, whether containing personal data or not, are accessible to everyone unless protected by secrecy regulation. The Archival Law and the Freedom of the Press Act thus have potentially far-reaching effects on privacy, although this aspect has received considerably less attention than the impact on openness. Exploring the development of the Swedish archival regulation is therefore of great interest. The study shows that the scope of documents to archive was made gradually larger during the period. This happened through the transfer from "archival material" to "official document", and through the increasingly emphasised presumption for preservation of documents. As a result of this development, the principle of public access and, more specifically, the archives, were described as invaluable to democratic government. The linguistic analysis shows that the meaning of "the principle of public access to official documents" (offentlighetsprincipen) changed over time, implicating that the meaning must not be taken for granted. Benefits and drawbacks related to openness and privacy were identified in Swedish and international archival science research and compared to those in the empirical material. Arguments in the material were mainly oriented towards positive aspects of openness. Benefits of privacy as being vital for democracy were entirely absent. With one exception, in-depth discussions on ...
