2004
freedominfo.org Global Survey Results - Norway
Text
from the freedominfo.org
Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around
the World, by David Banisar (updated 12 May 2004)
The Freedom of Information Act of 1970 provides for any person to have a broad right of access to official documents held by public authorities. (1) Official documents are defined as information which is recorded and can be listened to displayed or transferred and which is created by the authority and are dispatched or are received by the authority. All records are indexed at the time of creation or receipt and some ministries make the electronic indexes available on the Internet or through e-mail.
Requests can be made in any form including anonymously and must be responded to immediately. Internal guidelines issued by the Ministry of Justice say that requests should be responded to in three days. The Ombudsman in 2000 ruled, "It should be possible to decide most disclosure requests the same day or at least in the course of one to three working days, provided that no special, practical difficulties were involved." (2) Release may be delayed, "if the documents then available give a directly misleading impression of the case and that public disclosure could therefore be detrimental to obvious public or private interests."
There is a broad exemption for internal documents when the agency has not completed its handling of the case unless the agency has dispatched the document. Documents are also exempt from release if they are made secret by another law or if they refer to national security, national defense or international relations, financial management, the minutes of the Council of State, appointments or protections in the civil service, regulatory or control measures, test answers, annual fiscal budgets or long-term budgets, and photographs of persons entered in a personal data register.
If access is denied, individuals can appeal to a higher authority and then to the Storting's Ombudsman for Public Administration or a court. The Ombudsman's decisions are not binding but are generally followed. (3) There have been few cases where an appeal has been made to a court in the 30 years of the Act.
An analysis in September 2001 found that "10 out of 17 government ministries are keeping more secrets than four years ago" with the worst being the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and Petroleum and Energy Ministry. (4) Earlier in the year, a survey of employees found that, "one in six Justice Ministry employees believes that issues handled by the central government administration are withheld from public knowledge in breach of the Freedom of Information Act…" and "eight out of 17 ministerial secretaries general confirm that the public is denied access to information, in breach of the law." (5) The government released a white paper in April 1998 proposing changes in the law. (6) These include changing the subject of the request to information from documents, limiting the internal documents exemption, and making the law consistent with European Union requirements on access to environmental information.
Norway signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 and ratified it in May 2003. A committee released a draft Access to Environmental Information bill in December 2000 which was introduced in Parliament in September 2002. (7)
The 1998 Security Act sets rules on classification of information. (8) It creates four levels of classification and requires that information cannot be classified for more than 30 years. The National Security Authority enforces the act. Starting in 1988, Norway began releasing en mass most documents over 30 years old. (9) The Act on Defence Secrets prohibits the disclosing military secrets by government officials and also the collection (sketches, photographs and notes) and disclosure of secrets by others including journalists. (10)
The Personal Data Act allows individuals to access and correct files containing personal information about themselves held by public and private bodies.(11) It is overseen and enforced by the Datatilsynet (The Data Inspectorate). (12)
The Archives Act of 1992 sets a thirty years rule for the release of information. (13) A new Archives Act sets rules for the collection and registration of documents. (14)
Notes
1. Act of 19 June 1970 relating to public access to documents in the public administration (lov om offentlighet i forvaltningen av 19 juni 1970 nr 69). Amended by Act No. 47 of 11 June 1982 and Act no. 86 of 17 December 1982 and Act of 10 January 1997 No. 7. http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/ulovdata/lov-19700619-069-eng.pdf
2. Case 2000-0400 in Sivilombudsmannen, The Parliamentary Ombudsman - Norway Annual Report 2000.
3. Home page: http://www.sivilombudsmannen.no/
4. More secrecy during election campaign in Norway Daily No. 167/01, 3 September 2001.
5. Government secrecy often unlawful in Norway Daily No. 94/01, 21 May 2001.
6. See Fredrik Sejersted, Norway: The Act on Public Access to Documents: Current Frustrations and Proposals for Reform, European Public Law Journal, Vol 5, No. 1, 1999.
7. Press release, New Act on the Right to Environmental Information, September 19, 2002. http://odin.dep.no/md/engelsk/aktuelt/pressem/022021-070093/index-dok000-b-n-a.html. Right of access to environmental information. http://odin.dep.no/md/engelsk/publ/rapporter/022051-220008/index-dok000-b-n-a.html
8. Act of 20 March 1998 No. 10 relating to Protective Security Services (the Security Act). http://www.ub.uio.no/ujur/ulovdata/lov-19980320-010-eng.doc
9. For information generally on national security issues in Norway and the previous system of classification, see Nils Peter Gleditsch, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Information and National Security: The Case of Norway, in Security and Liberty: National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (Coliver et al, Ed), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
10. Lov av 20.03.1998 nr. 10 om forebyggende sikkerhetstjeneste.
11. Act of 14. April 2000 No. 31 relating to the processing of personal data (Personal Data Act). http://www.datatilsynet.no/upload/Dokumenter/regelverk/lov_forskrift/lov-20000414-031-eng.pdf
12. Home Page: http://www.datatilsynet.no/
13. Archives Act of 4 December 1992 No. 126.