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Section 5 — Official document
(1) For the purposes of this Act, a document is defined as a written or visual
presentation, and also as a message relating to a given topic or subject-matter and
consisting of signs which, by virtue of the use to which they are put, are meant to
be taken as a whole, but are decipherable only by means of a computer, an audio or
video recorder or some other technical device.
(2) An official document is defined as a document in the possession of an authority and
prepared by an authority or a person in the service of an authority, or a document
delivered to an authority for the consideration of a matter or otherwise in
connection with a matter within the competence or duties of the authority. In
addition, a document is deemed to be prepared by an authority if it has been
commissioned by the authority; and a document is deemed to have been delivered
to an authority if it has been given to a person commissioned by the authority or
otherwise acting on its behalf for the performance of the commission.
(3) Subject to the exceptions provided in paragraph (5), the following are deemed not to
be official documents:
(1) a letter or other document sent to a person in the service of an authority or to
an elected official because of another task performed or position held by the
recipient;
(2) notes kept by a person in the service of an authority or a person
commissioned by an authority and such drafts which have not yet been
released for presentation or other consideration;
(3) documents procured for in-service training, information retrieval or any other
comparable internal activity of an authority;
(4) a document given to an authority for the performance of a task on behalf of a
private party, or prepared for this purpose;
(5) a document left with or handed in to an authority as lost property.
(4) This Act applies to documents prepared for negotiations or communications
between persons in the service of authorities or between authorities and private
individuals or corporations acting on their behalf, or for other comparable internal
activities of such authorities, only if the documents contain such information that,
according to the archives legislation, they are to be archived. However, if the
documents are archived, the authority may order that access to them may be
granted only by permission of the authority.
(5) The provisions on document secrecy in section 24 of this Act or in another Act
apply also to documents referred to in paragraph (3)(2) and paragraph (4).
Chapter 2 — When documents enter the public domain
Section 6 — When a document prepared by an authority enters the public domain
(1) Unless otherwise provided on document publicity or secrecy or another restriction
of access to information in this Act or another Act, a document prepared by an
authority shall enter the public domain as follows:
(1) an entry in a continuously updated diary or comparable register enters the
public domain when it is made; however, information on a suspect in the diary
of a prosecutor enters the public domain only after the application for a
summons or the prosecutor’s summons has been signed or verified in a
similar manner, or after the public prosecutor has decided to waive
prosecution or the matter has lapsed;
(2) in cases other than those referred to in subparagraphs (3) and (4), an
invitation to tender, to provide information or to comment, as well as a
proposal, a proposition, a motion, a notification and a petition, including any
appendices, enters the public domain when it has been signed or confirmed in
another comparable manner;
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