An administration authority may alow wider access to documents where this is not allowed under the rules of secrecy etc. The purpose of these acts is prevent mismanagement, corruption, and arbitrary decisions. Public administration may seem irrelevant to library policy. The point is however, that according to Danish principles the access to information is of vital interest to any citizen and thus it is the basis of our democracy. Securing freedom of speech is in Denmark closely connected to the free and unhindered access to mass-media.
Free commentary is part of the exercise of free speech.
The basic principle in this law is freedom of expression without censorship. But the author,the publisher or the editor is reponsible before the laws. In this context it should be mentioned that Denmark has a strong ethical codex deriving from the law, but expressed in Press Ethical Rules, enforced by The Press Ethical Board. As illustrated the basic principles are well founded in the lawbase underlying the librarysystem in Denmark, but that does not mean, that we have no problems in safeguarding the principles of free access to all published information. Another issue creating lots of debate is the topic of Internet censorship, especially in childrens libraries.