Access to public information and whistleblower protection in Sweden: Distinctive traits

Abstract

This paper presents the main features of the right of access to public information and the protection of informants in Sweden. Its historical recognition, as a pioneer country, and the intrinsic relationship between the two are analyzed. Sweden has a detailed and advanced regulation of the right of access, whose greatest specificities are the extent of constitutional legislation and its historical and systematic connection with freedom of the press. However, weaknesses are also observed from a comparative perspective, including the Spanish one, mainly the limitation in terms of the scope of obligated subjects, the lack of substantive and procedural guarantee regarding the interests of third parties affected by the information and the existence of gaps in the full judicial control of the decisions taken by any of the obligated subjects. Regarding the protection of the informants, it was already provided for in the public sphere in the Law on Freedom of the Press and in the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression. The Swedish Whistleblower Law of 2021, which has transposed the 2019 Directive, is, therefore, directly applicable to the private sphere and only supplementary to the public sphere. It has been the subject of two main criticisms: from the workers' point of
view, it requires employees to carry out complex assessments, which creates uncertainty; and from the businessmen's point of view, it threatens trade secrets.