Sweden Wire

After a heated debate in the Riksdagen, a bill was narrowly (143-138) approved to significantly extend the use of wiretapping in Sweden. The vote was approved amidst large numbers of demonstrators. Some of whom were handing out copies of George Orwell’s dystopia “1984”.

The bill has led some to comment that Sweden has now joined nations like China, Saudi Arabia and the US, with there highly controversial eavesdropping program. The law allows security services to intercept calls, email and faxes. The government insists that this law will only apply to international calls. This is despite one of the countries leading telecommunications companies, TeliaSonera, suggesting that the filtering of national and international calls would be impossible.

By way of comparison, in the United Kingdom wiretapping is covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). This requires the security services, GCHQ, police and customs to seek authorisation from the home secretary. The interception warrant must specify one person or one premise as the subject of the interception.

The new law in Sweden, which is due to come into force in January 2009, goes far beyond anything else in seen in Europe, and it is highly likely that this law will be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights. As the UK is well aware, any interruption of a person’s personal life that is not in accordance with the law and necessary in a democratic society will fall foul of their convention obligations. Furthermore, it is not just personal privacy that is at risk. Journalists believe this new law will prevent sources from talking to them. This is due to the risk of their conversations being taped, and used against them, thus affecting the ability of the press to hold the government accountable.

However, it will take years for a case regarding this law to reach Strasbourg, in which time many number of people are likely to have their privacy invaded.