A request for access to documents in a neighbouring country helped award-winning Danish journalists contribute to the downfall of a government minister.
When the Danish minister of integration, Birthe Rønn Hornbech (Liberal), was forced to resign, important parts of her political fate had been shaped by reporters Ulrik Dahlin and Anton Geist at the Danish daily newspaper Information. Their work was based on numerous requests for access to information.
Dahlin and Geist, since rewarded with the prestigious Danish Cavling prize, showed in close to 100 articles how Rønn Hornbech had actively denied Palestinians and other stateless people born in Denmark their right to obtain Danish citizenship. That right follows from a UN convention which Denmark had signed but, the two reporters claimed, did not implement properly in nearly 500 cases.
Cross-border requests
During a critical phase in their reporting, Dahlin and Geist asked for access from the Swedish authorities to find out if, and when, the Nordic ministers had informed each other on how to interpret the convention. "We took a chance, and got a positive cultural shock. The Swedish ministry excused itself for not being able to answer immediately and then returned the day after. They never asked us who we were or our purpose," Anton Geist says, adding: "Later we found out that the Swedes were given the factual information from the Danish ministry and then passed it on to us. But the Danes only came up with an answer weeks later. It was grotesque." Shortly afterwards the Norwegians and the Finns also provided the Danish reporters with information they were not given at home.
The reporters could thus demonstrate that the Danish minister had known how differently the other Nordic countries interpreted the very same convention more than a year before she confessed as much to a committee at the Danish parliament. This information became crucial to Birthe Rønn Hornbech's forced resignation from the government. The articles by Dahlin and Geist also led to the setting up of an investigative committee to establish why, and how, the ministry of integration had failed to comply with the UN convention and possibly with Danish law.
Concern over a proposed access law
Anton Geist says he is happy to have experienced how cross-border freedom-of-information requests can be a useful tool. "It should also be noted that many of the requests we successfully made in Denmark would not have been possible should a proposed new access law have been in force. According to the proposal a whole category of documents related to 'service to members of government' might be excluded in the future," he says. The proposal for the new legislation has been heavily criticised by journalists. The new centre-left government, which came to power in November, has indicated that the proposal for a revised access law has for the moment been put in a drawer and will not be dealt with until September.