THE FIRST FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
His Majesty’s Gracious Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and of the Press (1766)
Translated by Peter Hogg
Issued in Stockholm, in the Council Chamber, on 2 December 1766.
Printed at the Royal Printing-Press.
We Adolphus Frederick by the Grace of God King of Sweden, Gothland and Wenden etc. etc. Heir to Norway and Duke of SchleswigHolstein, etc. etc. Proclaim, That, having considered the great advantages that flow to the public from a lawful freedom of writing and of the press, and whereas an unrestricted mutual enlightenment in various useful subjects not only promotes the development and dissemination of sciences and useful crafts but also offers greater opportunities to each of Our loyal subjects to gain improved knowledge and appreciation of a wisely ordered system of government; while this freedom should also be regarded as one of the best means of improving morality and promoting obedience to the laws, when abuses and illegalities are revealed to the public through the press; We have graciously decided that the regulations issued previously on this matter require such appropriate amendment and improvement that all ambiguity, as well as any such coerciveness as is incompatible with their intended purpose, may be removed. In regard to which, and having received the loyal report of the Estates of the Realm on this matter, We have graciously decided that the previously established office of Censor shall be entirely abolished and that it shall not hereafter be the duty of the Chancellery to supervise, approve or disallow the texts submitted for printing, but the authors themselves shall be responsible, together with the printers, for what will appear in print, subsequent to this gracious ordinance, by which the former censorship regulations are entirely repealed; although, with regard to the importaAnders Chydenius took an active part in the Diet of 1765-66. One of the lasting results of his activities was this Ordinance on Freedom of Writing and of the Press (1766), which he considered himself to be one of his greatest achievements. tion and sale in the bookshops of harmful books, the supervision of that will remain with Our Chancellery and the respective consistories, whose obligation it is to ensure that no banned and corrupting books, whether on theological or other subjects, may be disseminated.
1. No one shall be permitted to write or publish in print anything that is contrary to the confession of Our true faith and the pure Evangelical doctrine; whoever is convicted thereof shall be fined three hundred daler in silver coin. Should the text contain blasphemy against God, it shall be judged according to statute law. And in order the more effectively to prevent the insinuation of heretical doctrines, all manuscripts that in any way concern doctrine and our fundamental Christian articles of faith shall be inspected by the nearest consistory, and no printer shall venture, on pain of a fine of two hundred daler in silver coin, to issue such publications in print without written permission from the consistory, which shall also be printed.
2. It is the irrevocable fundamental law of the Swedish Realm that there shall be a King: He and none other shall govern His Realm with and not without, even less contrary to, the advice of the Council of State, in accordance with the laws approved and established by the Estates, and after Him His direct male heirs in the manner laid down in the Act of Settlement adopted in 17 by the Estates of the Realm; that no other authority shall be permitted to introduce and amend laws than the legitimately assembled Estates of the Realm, pursuant to their authority as Parliamentary delegates; that the privileges of any estate may not be touched upon or altered without the unanimous agreement of all four estates; no new taxes and imposts be laid upon the kingdom without the knowledge, free will and assent of the Estates of the Realm, without which, likewise, neither may war be declared nor the official coinage, in respect of its quality, be improved or impaired; in addition to which the Councillors of State are always individually accountable to the Estates for the advice that they give to His Majesty, as also government officials for the performance of their duties. These fundamental laws, with others that the Estates of the Realm have established or will establish as irrevocable, no one shall venture in any way to assail or question by means of publications or printed material, on pain of a fine of three hundred daler in silver coin.
3. Should anyone dare to include vituperative or disparaging opinions of Us and of Our Royal House in published writings or to make such imputations against any of the Councillors of the King and the Realm that
concern their honour or are otherwise defamatory, he shall be judged by statute law. Should anyone similarly offend in the aforesaid manner against the Estates of the Realm, he shall, according to the greater or lesser seriousness of the offence, either be condemned to death or be punished with some other severe physical penalty. Should anyone write a libel, or what may otherwise be insulting or disparaging, against the officials of the realm or any other citizen, he shall incur the penalty laid down in statute law. Nor shall it be permitted for
anyone to indulge in abusive statements in public writings about crowned heads or their closest blood relatives and contemporary ruling authorities; nor to write or publish in print anything by which a manifest vice is
promoted or justified and is thus incompatible with decency, a just natural and Christian ethics and its principles; whoever offends against this shall be liable to a fine of three hundred daler in silver coin.
4. The printer shall display the name of the author on the title-page, unless the latter wishes to remain anonymous, which should not be denied him, in which case the printer, for his own protection, shall obtain from him a written acknowledgement that he has written the publication; notwithstanding which, whether or not the publication lacks the name of the author, the name of the printer himself and that of the town where the printing has taken place, as well as the date, should always be displayed on it; if the printer neglects to do so, he shall pay a fine of two hundred daler in silver coin. If the publication lacks the name of the author and the printer, were it to be prosecuted, is demonstrably unwilling to reveal it, he himself shall bear the entire responsibility that the author of the publication should have borne; but if he is willing to name the author, he shall be freed from all responsibility. Of everything that is printed the printer shall be obliged, in the established manner, to deliver six copies, as soon as they have been printed, of which Our and the Kingdom’s Chancellery, the State Archives, Our Library and all three universities in the kingdom shall each receive one copy; should the printer neglect to do so, he shall pay a fine of one hundred daler in silver coin; and in order that offences against this gracious ordinance may be duly prosecuted, it shall not only be the duty of Our Chancellor of Justice and the respective ombudsmen and public prosecutors to maintain close supervision over this matter and bring offenders to lawful conviction; but We also wish to permit every loyal subject of Ours to have the right to act as plaintiff in cases concerning offences against this ordinance, which shall always be pursued in a proper manner before the appropriate court, following a lawful summons, allowing both parties to enjoy their lawful procedural rights; and the judge shall likewise, at the very outset of the trial, examine whether there may be grounds for impounding all available copies of the prosecuted publication and placing them in safe custody until the conclusion of the case; if the publication is eventually deemed harmful and banned, all copies should be confiscated and destroyed. If the plaintiff, on the other hand, is found to have brought the action without sufficient reason, he shall face the same penalty that the accused would have undergone, had he been found guilty, and shall in addition be liable for all costs.
5. What We have thus expressly decreed in the first three paragraphs concerning that which shall be deemed to be prohibited in writing and in print no one may in any manner cite or interpret beyond its literal wording, but everything that is not clearly contrary to that is to be regarded as legitimate to write and print, in whatever language or in whatever style it may be written, whether on theological topics, ethics, history or any of the learned sciences, concerning the public or private economy, the activities of government departments and officials, societies and associations, commerce, trades, handicrafts and arts, miscellaneous information and inventions and so forth that may be of utility and enlightenment to the public; as also no one shall be denied the right to publish treatises concerning the public law of the realm and matters connected with it, in which everyone, provided that the publication in no way offends against the irrevocable foundations of the political constitution referred to in the second paragraph above, shall have unrestricted freedom to present their thoughts on all matters that concern both the rights and duties of the citizens and may serve to produce some improvement or the prevention of harmful consequences; which freedom shall also extend generally to all laws and regulations that have already been promulgated or will be promulgated hereafter. It shall also in equal measure be permitted to write and print material concerning the relations of the kingdom with other powers and the advantage or harmfulness of former or more recent alliances, or statements made regarding them; in which regard all treaties concluded with foreign powers may likewise be printed, although not any part of them that should remain secret; even less shall the right be denied to produce and have printed any accounts of the civil constitutions of other nations, their advantages, intentions, commerce and economy, strengths and weaknesses, character and customs, achievements and mistakes, whether specifically or comparatively.
6. This freedom of the press will further include all exchanges of correspondence, species facti, documents, protocols, judgments and awards, whether they were produced in the past or will be initiated, maintained, presented, conducted and issued hereafter, before, during and after proceedings before lower courts, appeal and superior courts and government departments, our senior administrators and consistories or other public bodies, and without distinction between the nature of the cases, whether these are civil, criminal or ecclesiastical or otherwise in some degree concern religious controversies; as well as older and more recent appeals and expositions, declarations and counter-declarations that have been or will be submitted to the Chambers of Our Supreme Court as well as the official correspondence and memorials that have already been or may in future be issued from the Office of the Chancellor of Justice; although no one may be obliged to obtain and print more of all this, either in extensoor abridged as a species facti, than he himself requests and regards as adequate and which, when requested, shall immediately be issued to anyone who applies for them, on penalty of the provisions in the following paragraph; but in criminal cases that have been settled by an amicable reconciliation between private individuals no one may, without the agreement of the parties, make use of this freedom as long as they remain alive; while also, if anything concerning grave and unfamiliar misdeeds and abominations, blasphemies against God and the Head of State, evil and cunning schemes in these and other serious criminal cases, superstitions and other such matters should appear in court proceedings or judgments, they shall be completely excluded.
7. Whereas a legally correct votum does not have to be concealed in cases where a decision is arrived at only by the vote of the judge; and as an impartial judge has no need to fear people when he has a clear conscience, while he will, on the contrary, be pleased if his impartiality becomes apparent and his honour is thereby simultaneously protected from both suspicions and pejorative opinions; We have therefore, in order to prevent the several kinds of hazardous consequences that may follow from imprudent votes, likewise graciously decided that they shall no longer be protected behind an anonymity that is no less injurious than unnecessary; for which reason when anyone, whether he is a party to the case or not, announces his wish to print older or more recent voting records in cases where votes have occurred, they shall, as soon as a judgment or verdict has been given in the matter, immediately be released for a fee, when for each votum the full name of each voting member shouldalso be clearly set out, whether it be in the lower courts or the appeal and superior courts, government departments, executory authorities, consistories or other public bodies, and that on pain of the loss of office for whosoever refuses to do so or to any degree obstructs it; in consequence of which the oath of secrecy will in future be amended and corrected in this regard.
8. Concerning the votes of the members of the Council of State, apart from cases that concern secret ministerial matters, as well as reports and statements on those applications and appeals that will be or have been submitted to the Estates of the Realm, the law shall, on the same grounds and in the same manner as in the preceding paragraph, be the same.
9. In addition to the records of trials and other matters referred to above, everyone who has a case or other proceedings touching his rights before any court or public body whatsoever, as also before Ourselves, the Estates of the Realm, their select committees and standing committees, shall be free to print an account of it or a so-called species facti, together with those documents relating to it that he regards as necessary to him; although he should in this matter keep to the truth, should he be concerned to avoid the liabilities prescribed in law.
10. The printing shall moreover be permitted of all the judgments and awards, decisions, rescripts, instructions, rules, regulations and privileges, with more of the same of whatever kind and nature they may be that have been issued in the past or will be issued in future from Our Council Chamber and Chancellery, government departments or offices, as well as the appeal and superior courts and the official boards of the realm, together with the public correspondence of their and other officials; also included among which are all memorials, applications, projects and proposals, reports, appeals, with decisions and responses to them from societies and public bodies as well as private individuals, including the documented proceedings and official duties, both legitimate and illegitimate, of all officials, together with whatever then occurred, whether advantageous or harmful. And to that end free access should be allowed to all archives, for the purpose of copying such documents in loco or obtaining certified copies of them; responsibility for the provision of which is subject to the penalty laid down in §7 of this ordinance.
11. All reports of parliamentary proceedings, from whichever locality they have formerly been issued, may also be printed, by whomsoever applies to do so, save that whatever is referred to in them regarding any activity or negotiations occurring on foreign territory that require secrecy may not be released and made public. Regarding those reports of parliamentary proceedings, on the other hand, that will be produced in future, We shall graciously ensure that they will be published in printed form in the same manner, in sufficient time before the beginning of each subsequent Parliament to allow everyone the opportunity, not only to inform himself as well as possible about the situation in the kingdom, but also all the more easily to subsequently contribute to the general good by means of the appropriate memoranda and useful proposals and information; besides which those memorials and dictamina ad protocollum that are submitted to the Estates of the Realm may be freely printed by whomsoever applies to do so. It is also permitted to print the reports of the select committees with their minutes and records of voting, in the manner prescribed in §7, although not before the reports have been delivered to the plena. And as the constitution requires that every matter be lawfully determined, and in order that all Our loyal subjects may be persuaded of the honourable conduct of their delegates during the sessions of Parliament, it is therefore freely permitted to print all the minutes and votes of the estates in the aforesaid manner, which shall also apply to all matters submitted to the plena by the Joint Security Committee as well as those gracious bills that We Ourselves lay before the Estates of the Realm which do not contain anything that should be kept secret.
12. A truthful history of former kings and regents and their ministers has been highly regarded by most nations both in former and more recent times, as directly raising important issues, in order to convey to the governing lords and commoners memorable judgments on wise and commendable achievements and, on the other hand, very necessary warnings against rash, imprudent, malicious or even cruel and ignominious decisions and deeds, as well as to enable the subjects, from events in former reigns, all the better to comply with, be aware of, understand, value and defend the obligations, freedoms and rights that they possess, as well as public and individual security. In order that nothing should be lacking in such historical works that may serve to ensure their completeness, We also wish to extend to them the freedom of writing and of the press to the extent that all specific events or known incidents, in part secret and in part more familiar, that have occurred under past governments, either in this kingdom or elsewhere, may be made public, together with political comments on them.
13. Furthermore, We herewith also wish to graciously declare that, as it would be too cumbersome to enumerate all possible subjects, cases and matters in detail, it is Our gracious will and command that all Our loyal subjects may possess and make use of a complete and unrestricted freedom to make generally public in print everything that is not found to be expressly prohibited in the first three paragraphs or otherwise in this gracious ordinance, and still less that anything that may be noted, remarked upon or otherwise published in the form of comment relating to all the admissible cases and matters specified above may ever, under the pretext that it implies censure, blame or criticism, be refused or prevented from being printed.
14. And in order that Our loyal subjects may in future possess that complete confidence with regard to the assured preservation of the freedom of writing and of the press outlined here that an irrevocable fundamental law provides, We herewith wish to declare that no one, whoever he may be, on pain of Our Royal displeasure, shall dare to advocate the slightest elaboration or limitation of this gracious ordinance, much less attempt on his own authority to achieve such a limitation to a greater or lesser extent, and that not even We Ourselves will permit anyone to make the slightest modification, alteration or explication that could lead
to the curtailment of the freedom of writing and of the press.
15. The fines listed in this gracious ordinance will be distributed three ways.Which all those whom it concerns shall obediently observe. In confirmation of which We have signed this with Our own hand and certified itwith Our Royal seal. Stockholm, in the Council Chamber, on 2 December 1766.
ADOLPHUS FREDERICK.
(L. S.)
Johan von Heland.
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