Norwegian press organizations are reacting strongly to the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOF) has proposed a law that allows them to invoke confidentiality in all inquiries about sanctions.
Less than 20 minutes ago
In the wake of the extensive sanctions against Russia, there has been a large increase in the number of inquiries from Norwegian business, writes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the consultation note for the recent legislative proposal.
The questions are about permits, exceptions or dispensations from the regulations. In other cases, it is a matter of pure guidance.
Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fears that private business will be reluctant to provide information to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “for fear that the information they send to the ministry could be made public”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore believes there is reason to protect the possibility of confidential dialogue, they write.
Read on E24+
Helped a Russian “consultant” with a bus ticket – then the bags with piles of banknotes arrived
The proposal is to introduce a separate provision on confidentiality in the so-called Sanctions Act from 2021, in which, among other things, the Ukraine regulation is authorised.
The bill will not have financial consequences, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims.
Although the ministry believes that there will be more inquiries from the private business world as a result of the new duty of confidentiality, they reassure at the same time that it will “facilitate the work of assessing access requests”.
Overall, an administrative gain is therefore expected from the proposal, it says.
“Weakly justified”
The proposal impresses neither the Norwegian Press Association (NP) nor the Norwegian Journalists Association (NJ).
They believe it “appears to be weakly substantiated and has significant shortcomings”, and reacts to the fact that it is not mentioned that the information in question is often of great public interest.
also read
Employee notified PST about own employer: Alleged customer had ties to Russia
Lawyer Ina Lindahl Nyrud of the Norwegian Journalist Association (NJ) is co-author of the response to the consultation.
– It is not the case that today there are no confidentiality provisions, on the contrary, says Nyrud.
In this area, there are already what are called general administrative confidentiality provisions, which are generally used throughout the administration.
In addition, there is what is called special legislation – special rules on confidentiality that apply to the individual sectors, she explains.
– Then the thinking is that regardless of whether it is special legislation or general rules, one must step in and concretely assess in the individual case whether the duty of confidentiality should be used as a basis or not, says Nyrud.
– In order to avoid having to make such specific assessments, the ministry proposes to introduce a completely general provision that will put a lid on this very important topic, which is of great public interest.
also read
Norwegian equipment ended up with Russian military suppliers
Would be impossible
NJ and Sindre Granly Meldalen in NP highlight in their consultation response a handful of news items E24 has published in the past year that deal with the sanctions regulations.
The organizations also refer to articles from Sør-Varanger Avis and Dagens Næringsliv.
As early as March 2022, E24 was able, after gaining access to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to report that 75 companies had sent emails to the ministry with questions about the situation in Russia. A partner of one of the companies was part-owned by the Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
In May of the same year, E24 reported that export companies had to wait 2–3 months for answers to specific questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A Russian minister with shares in a Norwegian company in Oslo, a Ukrainian plea that Norway had to throttle Russian fishing quotas, and seven tonnes of food that was stopped at Storskog on the way to Svalbard, are other cases that E24 has discussed as a result of requests for access to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The stopped food at Storskog further led to accusations from Russia about a breach of the Svalbard Treaty and a Norwegian chargé d’affaires into the carpet of the Russian Foreign Ministry. E24 was also given access to this.
Becomes dependent on leaks
“Many of the cases would probably be either impossible, or significantly more difficult to prepare, if there was a non-disclosure provision similar to the one the ministry is now proposing to introduce”, write NJ and NP in their consultation response.
– Then the media become dependent on leaks. Alternatively, it will be impossible to get the information out to most people, says Nyrud.
She fears this will primarily affect the population, who in the worst case will not find out about these matters.
also read
Norwegian-made goods in Russia: – It is likely that some of it is intended for the military
– What makes us think this is particularly serious, and that we are critical, is that there is not one word in the consultation document, not a single word, that the general public may need the information, says Nyrud.
– There is no discussion as to whether it could be problematic to implement such an extensive non-disclosure provision. Despite the fact that the topic has been touched on in so many media cases in the past year.
– We are coming out so strongly now because we believe that you cannot tighten up the duty of confidentiality in order to avoid making concrete assessments.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been sent Nyrud’s statements and the criticism in the response to the consultation.
State Secretary Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik says they appreciate the consultation responses from the Norwegian Association of Journalists and the Norwegian Press Association.
– We will now thoroughly assess all the consultation input.
Kravik claims that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the contrary hair assessed whether the information may be of public interest, despite the fact that it is not mentioned in the consultation memorandum.
– The public’s interest in the information is an important consideration, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has considered in our consultation proposal and weighed against other important considerations in matters affecting the sanctions regulations, says Kravik.
