ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 42. (ZAGREB, 1999.)

Strana - 84

C. Gränström, Access to current records and archives, as a tool of democracy, transparency and openness of the government administration, Arh. vjesn., god. 42 (1999), str. 79-92 tion, such as letters, reports. These were usually signed so it was relatively easy to decide what were the original documents. It was also easy to separate them from printed material which belonged to the libraries. Today in the computerised era, this matter has become increasingly difficult. In order to avoid arbitrary decisions and to have a predictability of the rights, it is necessary to have some definition of what constitutes a document. I am not going to enter deeply into this issue but will mention that this matter was the theme of the Second Stockholm Conference in 1996 which had the title The Concept of Record (published in 1998). In the papers presented and from the following discussions, you could see the different interpretations and opinions. No consensus was reached and the participants agreed that there is a need for a more common understanding of archival terminology. As was evident during these discussions, it is difficult to discuss archival issues, when different archival concepts may be identified by the same term. I will conclude the matter of definition by asking if there is a need to have the same definition for documents at the public administration and for documents transferred to and kept by archival institutions. If there is no need to have the same definition, what are the differences and what legal and other consequences will follow from this attitude? 2.2 Limitations to access It must be understood from the beginning that an unlimited access to official documents is not possible or wished for. It is well understood that in order to protect vital private and public interests, such as privacy of the individual, national defence and security, crime detection, you must have restrictions for some documents or parts of documents during a certain time limit. Hence the rights of free access, where they exist, must be restricted in legislation, either by rules given in the Freedom of Act or in special legislation. It is necessary to obtain a balance between these legitimate, but sometimes conflicting, interests of free access and openness on one side and the need for protection of the interests mentioned above. It is important that these rules are clear and that each denial should be motivated in a law. They must be transparent and not subject to the discretion of the agency keeping the documents. It must be possible to appeal at a court against a decision to deny access. It must also be kept in mind that documents, which for some reason are considered not to be accessible, generally are available after the expiration of in legislation given time limits, which can vary, but usually no more than 70 years. In some cases these time limits have coincided with the point of time, when the documents are transferred to archival institutions. Today with rapid changing structures in the public administration and the increasing computerisation, it has become common for ar84