The right to publish a newspaper without having the contents monitored in advance by any government agency is one example of freedom of the press. The Freedom of the Press Act serves to safeguard freedom of speech in printed form.
It gives all individuals a fundamental right to express their opinions and disseminate them without prior censorship. The right of free access to official documents is also enshrined in the Freedom of the Press Act. This means that anyone is entitled to contact a public authority or agency in Sweden and request access to an official document, such as a decision it has made. An individual who makes such a request does not need to give his name or specify the purpose of his request.
Another principle contained in the Freedom of the Press Act is the freedom to communicate information. According to this principle, all persons in Sweden are entitled to communicate to the press information that they consider important and necessary to make public. The publisher of the material is not entitled to reveal the source if the individual in question wishes to remain anonymous. It is a punishable offence for anyone, for example the head of a public agency, to try to find out who has leaked information to the media.
Sweden's first Freedom of the Press Act was introduced as early as 1766.
Read the full-text version of the Freedom of the Press Act