The Prime Minister’s Office has refused to hand over emails sent to the Chancellor of Justice Tuomas Pöysti when the government was preparing incomplete and ultimately failed legislation to implement a strict lock earlier this year.
BTI had requested e-mails, and Pöysti had already published the e-mails he had sent to the Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) and his advisers during this period.
The communications relate to a bill that was eventually criticized by Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs as being poorly drafted and therefore did not progress to the Statute.
However, only one side of the debate is public after the Prime Minister’s Office denied the freedom to request information.
The decision was criticized by legal experts interviewed by STT, as the main principle of transparency in Finnish legislation means that, in principle, all documents related to government decision-making should be available.
Olli Mäenpääthe emeritus professor of administrative law said that only banal, technical communication, such as communication related to the organization of a coffee day, should be denied.
"I would have believed that when you prepare restrictions on movement that affect people’s fundamental rights in a very concrete way, they cannot be mostly technical, at least in terms of content," said Mäenpää.
The Prime Minister’s Office has previously refused to disclose documents related to the handling of the Covid pandemic.
The role of Pöyst in assisting the government in drafting locking legislation took place in a public debate after the bill failed in Parliament, and he stated that he would avoid participating in such preparations in the future.
The Prime Minister’s Office has previously agreed to publish some emails, including emails between Marin and a recently retired official, in which Marin had criticized his coalition partners and local and regional leaders for not doing enough to combat the pandemic.
Source: The Nordic Page