Oikeudesta anonyymiin julkisen vallan käyttöön
Avainsanat:
hallinto-oikeus, julkisuusperiaate, perusoikeudet, tietosuojaAbstrakti
On the existence of a general right to participate anonymously in public activities
The General Court of the European Union decided recently an appeal made by Dutch journalist Gert-Jan Dennekamp concerning access to documents relating to the affiliation of certain Members of the European Parliament to the additional pension scheme (T-115/13). The court overturned the decision of the Parliament, which had refused access. However, although access was granted by the Court, the argumentation adopted by the Court indicates a tendency to strengthen the protection of personal data, limiting the derogations from the protection to what is strictly necessary. This line of interpretation stems from the case-law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), for example the recent Schrems case (C-362/14).
Such an approach to the relationship between the right of access to official documents and the protection of personal data might not be compatible with the traditional Finnish constitutional principle of open government. The case-law of the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court contains a very consistent line of interpretation applying to the threshold of protection of personal data. The protection has not limited access to official documents, when the publicity of personal data cannot undermine some other basic right, for example the right to privacy. For example, the list containing names of a seminar organised by the government was not considered to be a register containing personal data at all (KHO 2012:88).
However, the ECJ has not observed this idea of threshold, but has given protection to all kinds of personal data, and protected even a list of participants included in document concerning a meeting held in the context of a procedure for failure to fulfil community obligations (C-28/08, Bavarian Lager). Due to the fact that there is a basic right concerning data protection in the EU charter, but no basic right concerning access to documents applicable to the Member States, the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, interpreted in the light of the case-law of the ECJ, might lead to a substantial modification of the Finnish principle of openness.
