Finland has a long history of freedom of information legislation, which was reinforced recently taking into account new realities and European policy trends. Finland’s regulation of freedom of information has been on a number of occasions referred to as an example of good practice. In particular, the Council of Europe’s anticorruption commission noted that effective freedom of information legislation in Finland is one of the key factors of low level of corruption in the country.

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Finland has a long history of freedom of information legislation, which was reinforced recently taking into account new realities and European policy trends. Finland’s regulation of freedom of information has been on a number of occasions referred to as an example of good practice. In particular, the Council of Europe’s anticorruption commission noted that effective freedom of information legislation in Finland is one of the key factors of low level of corruption in the country. Finland is one of the countries which widely and successfully utilizes information technologies for access to official information.

Swedish Access to Public Records Act was also applicable to Finland during the time when the country was a part of Swedish kingdom. The basis of new Finnish freedom of information legislation was established in 1951 with the adoption of Act on Publicity of Official Documents, which remained in effect until 1999 when Law on Openness of Government Activities was enacted. The Law on Openness of Government Activities guarantees the citizens’ rights to access official documents that do not contain personal data and state secrets. The Act contains also good practices in management of information, which is not very typical for European laws. Another peculiarity of Finnish freedom of information law is the combination of both freedom to access and state secrets norms in one legal act. According to Finnish freedom of information legislation the decisions concerning refusal of official information could be appealed to administrative court, the Chancellor of Judiciary and the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

The Data Protection Act was enacted in Finland in 1999. According to the Data Protection Act individuals are entitled to access and correct personal data hold by both public and private organizations. Data protection is overseen and enforcement is carried out by the Data Protection Ombudsman. Another law related to the freedom of information in Finland is Archives Act which was adopted in 1994. According to Section 7 of the Archives Act of Finland the archives should be recorded in a way to ensure individuals and institutions right to access the information stored in archives.

Analysis provided by David Sandukhchyan, Director, Internews Armenia Center for Information Law and Policy, OSCE/ODIHR consultant.

Posted: February 2007

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