Transcript The Finnish Open Government

Rauno Korhonen
Professor of Legal Informatics
20.4., klo 14.00
- The Historical Background and Some Reforms
Open Data and Re-Use of Public Sector Information
International Seminar, University of Lapland, 22.-23.4.2013
Something about the History of Openness Principle
•
Finland as a part of Swedish Kingdom since 12 th century
•
1766 Freedom of the Press Act (Anders Chydenius)
•
•
Grand Dutchy Finland under the Russia 1809-1917
Eras of strong censorship during that period
•
Independence in 1917 and the new constitution in 1917.
Freedom of Speech one of the civil rights.
•
1951 the first Openness Act
•
1999 the new Openness Act, still in use.
Anders Chydenius (1729 -1803)
- A Swedish-Finnish priest and an ecclesiastical member of the Riksdag of
the Estates (a kind of nationwide parliamentary meeting in that time).
- Chydenius had a powerfull influence when Sweden got in 1766 the first
openness decree: Freedom of the Press Act.
- He worked to increase civil liberties and economic freedom as part of
king Gustaf III´s doctrine of Enlightened despotism. --- for instance
Abolishment of torture and limitation of capital punishment!
- Chydenius also struggled for freedom of religion,
mostly for the legalisation of Jewish and Catholic
immigration into Sweden.
- Contemporary known as the leading classical
liberal of Nordic history. He write in his
pamphlet on the invisible hand, a decade before
a famous Adam Smith in Scotland.
Anders Chydenius was very outspoken about universal
rights and the abolition of privilege. He wanted to give the poor
the same freedom as for everybody else and argued for the good
of the poor, which was then rather exceptional among
politicians.
He promoted democracy and defended the freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, freedom of trade and industry, an the
workers rights. He called for an oversight of the way the state
funds were spents.
In modern language we would say
he advocated
openness and good governance.
- The Reform of the Constitution of Finland
(731/1999) came into force on 1 March 2000.
- It replaced several earlier constitutional Acts.
- There is a special chapter 2 in our
Constitution which deals with the Basic rights
and liberties of citizens (and foreigners who live
permanently in Finland)
- For example the provisions of the EC
Convention on Human Rights have been taken
into consideration in Constitutional Reform.
CHAPTER 2 in the Constitution of Finland
Basic rights and liberties
Section 6
Equality
Section 7
The right to life, personal liberty and integrity
Section 8
The principle of legality in criminal cases
Section 9
Freedom of movement
Section 10
The right to privacy
Section 11
Freedom of religion and conscience
Section 12
Freedom of expression and right of access to
information
Section 13
Freedom of assembly and freedom of association
The section 12 of Constitution about the Freedom of
Expression and Right of Access to Information:
”Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression
entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information,
opinions and other communications without prior prevention by
anyone. More detailed provisions on the exercise of the freedom
of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions
relating to pictorial programmes that are necessary for the
protection of children may be laid down by an Act.
Documents and recordings in the possession of the authorities
are public, unless their publication has for compelling reasons
been spesifically restricted by an Act. Everyone has the right of
access to public documents and recordings.”
THE FINNISH CONSTITUTION – CHAPTER 2
– Basic rights and liberties
Section 21 – Protection under the law
Everyone has the right to have his or her case dealt with
appropriately and without undue delay by a legally competent
court of law or other authority, as well as to have a decision
pertaining to his or her rights or obligations reviewed by a
court of law or other independent organ for the
administration of justice.
Provisions concerning the publicity of proceedings, the right
to be heard, the right to receive a reasoned decision and the
right of appeal, as well as the other guarantees of a fair trial
and good governance shall be laid down by an Act.
- Above mentioned section 12 in the Constitution of
Finland is regulated more in details in the level of
ordinary laws and decrees, which are the following
ones:
• Act on the Openness in Government Activities (621/1999)
•
Decree on the Openness of Government Activities and on
Good Practice in Information Management (1030/1999)
•
Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass
Media (460/2003).
•
Act on Information Management Governance in Public
Sector ( /2010)
Act on the Openness of Government Activities
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
General provisions
When documents enter the public domain
Right of access to a document
Granting access to a document
Duty of the authorites to promote access
and good practice on information
management
Chapter 6 Secrecy obligations
Chapter 7 Derogations from secrecy and
declassification
Chapter 8 Miscellaneous provisions
Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999)
Section 18 Good practice on information management
In order to create and realise good practice on information management,
the authorities shall see to the appropriate availability, usability, protection,
integrity and other matters of quality pertaining to documents and
information management systems and, for this purpose, especially:
1) maintain an index of any matters submitted and taken up for
consideration and any matters considered and decided; or
otherwise make sure that their public documents can be easily
located;
2) draw up and make available spesifications on their information
management systems and the public information contained therein,
unless granting access to such information would be contrary to the
provisions in section 24 or in some other Act;
3) when introduction of information management systems or
administrative or legislative reforms are being prepared, analyse the
effect of the proposed reform on the publicity, secrecy and
protection of documents and on the quality of the information
contained therein, as well as undertake the necessary measures for
the safeguarding of the rights pertaining to the information and its
quality, and for the arrangement of the protection of the documents,
the information management systems and the information contained
therein;
4) plan and realise their document and information administration
and the information management systems and computer systems
they maintain in a manner allowing for the effortless realisation of
access to the documents and for the approriate archiving or
destruction of the documents, the information management systems
and the information contained therein, as well as for the
approriate safequarding and data security
arrangements for the protection, ……
4) …., integrity and quality of the documents, the information
management systems and the information contained therein, paying
due attention to the significance of the information and uses to
which it is to be put, to the risks to the documents and the
information management systems and to the costs incurred by the
data security managements;
5) see to it that their personnel are adequately informed of the right
of access to the documents they deal with and the procedures, data
security arrangements and division of tasks relating to the provision
of access and the management of information, as well as to the
safeguarding of information, documents and information
management systems, and that compliance with the provisions,
orders and guidelines issued for the realisation of good practice on
information management is properly monitored.
- The Demand of Legal Education for Civil Servants!!!
- Our legislator was earlier more interested only in
documents and their publicity, nowadays it is paying
more attention to the content, quality and use of
information systems in the public sector.
- Above mentioned Section
18 in Openess Act can be
seen as one of the most important rules in the public
government. It offered the means for still going on
development of the Electronic Government in Finland.
- Nowadays we have started to use concept Information
Goverment, instead of Electronic Goverment.
E-Government or Information Government, has been a
new kind of developing process of government in the Rule of
Law –State.
- Background:
- The Government´s principal decision in 1998 in Finland
- EU Commissions eEurope 2005 – Working Program
- i2010-strategy
- EU2020-program;
- EU Digital Agenda
- European and National Open Data -strategies
Strengthening of Open Government in Finland
Government Period 1995-1999 (PM Paavo Lipponen´s Cabinet I)
- Only some separate programs during the period
Government Period 1999-2003 (PM Paavo Lipponen´s Cabinet II)
- Openess as a part of the large general reform of the central government
Government Period 2003-2007 (PM Matti Vanhanen´s Cabinet I)
- One of the political programs was Every Citizen´s Societal Participation
Goverment Period 2007-2011 (PM Matti Vanhanen´s Cabinet II)
- For instance the start of the SADe-project (Progress of E-services and
Democracy)
Government Period 2011-> (PM Jyrki Katainen´s Cabinet I)
- Government´s Programme for the Period: Open, Fair and Confident Finland
includes several projects like Open Data Program,
Goverment´s Programme 2011- (page 138):
”A client-oriented approach will be taken to developing
eGovernment and eServices in public administration. Accessibility
to eServices will be ensured and the special needs of older people
will be taken into account.
Public data will be brought into the public domain in a computerreadable format and available for further processing.
All functions of the State ICT service centres that are not restricted
to a given domain will be brought together.
To promote interoperability of information systems, open source
standards are used in public administration, which determine the
compatibility of information content and IT interfaces. Enterprise
architecture will be employed, utilising shared information
platforms and shared eGovernment platforms and eServices.”
Proposal for a Finnish Government Resolution on improving
the availability and promoting the reuse of public sector
information resources in digital format.
- Accepted by the Finnish Government on 3rd of March 2011 (11 pages)
Some Headlines:
This resolution presents the policy lines and necessary measures for improving
the availability and for increasing the reuse of digitalised public sector
information (resources) in all areas of society.
The object of the resolution is to promote the reuse of digitalised information
resources that are publicly funded, administered by the public sector, made
publicly available for reuse as such, and the handling of which is not subject
to any statutory limitations. Thus, the primary purpose of the resolution is not
to re-examine the actual regulations governing limitations on disclosure, use
and handling. However, the policy lines presented in the resolution can also be
used to facilitate the reuse of information covered by such limitations insofaf
as disclosing and making available such information is permitted under these
limitations.
The main acts here are Personal Data Act (523/1999
and so called the Openness Act (621/1999)
Proposal for a Finnish Government Resolution on improving the availability
and promoting the reuse of public sector information resources in digital
format.
”The policy lines include measures to clarify data policies and legislation, to
create structures and practices that enable use, and to promote the development
of services and applications.
The aim of the policy lines as regards public sector information
policy is that public sector infomration (resources) becomes
openly available and reusable under clear and uniform conditions
for reuse that are equal to all. Public sector information should be
made available cost-effectively from the information holder´s
perspective; in accordance with overall benefit to the national
economy; and, as a rule, free of charge to the user. At the same
time, the quality and maintenance of data must be attended to
through budgeting and (public sector) performance
management.”
Proposal for a Finnish Government Resolution on improving the availability and
promoting the reuse of public sector information resources in digital format.
” The joint-use data infrastructure that will be created for the
general public can be used to effectively make public sector
information available for reuse. Administrative branches should
identify and describe their information resources so that they can
be reused. In order to retrieve data content, consistent description
information and servide directories are needed to facilitate the use
of data. Data that may be disclosed as such should be made
available to users in digital format through open interfaces.
Necessary support services should be created in order to promote
the supply and use of public sector information resources. The
development and maintenance of an open and interoperable data
infrastructure can be secured with long-term funding.”
Julkishallinnon tietoluovutusten periaatteet ja
käytännöt. Ministry of Finance publications 2/2012. (the
main text only in Finnish, a short summary in English)
Abstract:
The results of the Working group on Promoting the
Availability and Use of Public Sector Information
Resources are:
• A proposal on general terms of use relating to the handling
of information in national base registers
• A proposal on a licence model for public sector open data
• A proposal on principles relating to information disclosure
fees
to be continued…>
” The working group has reviewed the income received by agencies from
information disclosures, the criteria for determining such income, and
income by customer sector. In respect of the information resources
mentioned in Section 10 of the Act on Information Management Governance
in Public Administration, the Ministry of Finance has included in the
preparation of the 2013-2016 central government spending limits the
working group´s proposal on the transfer to a payment-free system within
the public sector for the disclosure of information in standard form. For
this, the intention is to reallocate appropriations to authorities that disclose
information.
The report covers administrative and financial issues and effects relating
to the joint use and re-use of information. In the view of working group, the
Act on the Openness of Government Activities and the Act on Criteria for
Charges Payable to the State allow the implementation of the proposals on
the fees chargeable for information disclosures. The working group
proposes that ministries organise a survey, under the direction of the
Ministry of Finance, of information resources in their administrative
branch, evaluate their content, initiate measures and review possible
legislative development needs in respect of the joint use
and re-use of information. ”
The Reform of PSI-Directive and the Finnish viewpoints:
- EU Commision gave in December 2011 Proposal for a
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF
THE COUNCIL Amending Directive 2003/98/EC on re-use of
public sector information; COM (2011) 877 final; Brussels
12.12.2011.
- The EU Committee of the Religion has handled the Proposal
- The Finnish Government has given a supportative statement
- The Finnish Parliament´s committees have also shortly
commented this Reform.
The Finnish Government:
The Administrative Committee of the Finnish Parliament
The Great Committee of the Finnish Parliament: