GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OF SWEDISH PRESS LAW

Constitution of Sweden has remarkable feautures due to its institutional structure. Because Swedish Constitution doesn’t composed of solely one legal document but composed of four separate constitutional documents. Among those constitutional documents, two of them solely and exclusively regulate freedom of press and freedom of expression. Chronologically the first one, namely The Freedom of Press Act, regulates printed media such as newspapers, books and magazines while the other one is, namely The Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression is aiming to guarantee the freedom of speech in visual and sound media such as TV, video and radio. At the very beginning articles of both documents, it is emphasized that every Swedish citizen has a right to publish written matter, without prior hindrance by a public authority and not to be prosecuted other than before a lawful court.Both constitutional documents regulates the same field and interpretated almost in the same manner. These two legal documents are interpreted and apllied due to the basic principles set out by the right to print, publish and distrubute printed matter, free accsess to public files and rights and responsibilities of the autors and informants