Swedish Supreme Court on the EU Data Directive Free Speech7/18/2001; 10:51:10 AM 'The Swedish Supreme Court has made an important decision regarding the EU data directive. This directive has been interpreted by many people as a serious infringement in the freedom of speech, since it requires permission from the person you write about before you publish any information about a person on the Internet.''The case was a person, who had published a web site, in which he seriously criticized several Swedish banks and named individuals working at these banks, which he regarded as having improperly cheated the customers of the bank from their money.''The Swedish Supreme Court rejects the convictions in the lower court and the appeal court, and frees the person from all he was prosecuted for.'The main reasons given by the Swedish Supreme Court for this decision is that:'The EU Data Directive is based on the European Convention for protection of human rights. This convention has two possibly contradictory requirements: Protection of Privacy and Freedom of Speech. However, Protection of Privacy is specified in this convention as including private and family life, home and personal correspondence. Acts taken by bank directors in their work do not belong to this area....'I find this interesting mostly because it is a break from the EU.