1 Act of 19 May 2006 No. 16 relating to the right of access to documents held by public authorities and public undertakings (short title: Freedom of Information Act) Chapter 1 Introductory provisions Section 1 Purpose The purpose of this Act is to facilitate an open and transparent public administration, and thereby strengthen freedom of information and expression, democratic participation, legal safeguards for the individual, confidence in the public authorities and control by the public. The Act shall also facilitate the re-use of public information. Section 2 This Act applies to Scope of the Act (a) the state, the county authorities and the municipal authorities, (b) any other legal person in cases where it makes individual decisions or issues regulations, (c) any independent legal person in which the state, county authority or municipal authority directly or indirectly has an equity share that gives it more than half of the votes in the highest body of that legal person, and (d) any independent legal person in which the state, county authority or municipal authority directly or indirectly has the right to elect more than half of the voting members in the highest body of that legal person. Subparagraphs (c) and (d) above do not apply to legal persons which mainly carry on business in direct competition with and on the same conditions as private legal persons. For entities which after public acquisition or the like come under (c) or (d) above, this Act applies from and including the fourth month-end after the month when the conditions were met. The King may make regulations providing that this Act shall not apply to independent legal persons or to certain documents in the possession of independent legal persons encompassed by the first paragraph (c) or (d) insofar as such provision must be considered necessary based on consideration of the nature of the entity, the competitive situation or other special factors. The same applies where the great majority of the documents of the entity are exempt from access and particularly weighty considerations so indicate. The King may make regulations providing that this Act shall wholly or in part apply to independent legal persons that are owned by the state or a municipal authority without meeting the conditions of the first paragraph (c) or (d), or that are exempt under the first paragraph, second sentence. This Act does not apply to the Storting, the Office of the Auditor General, the Storting's Ombudsman for Public Administration or other institutions of the Storting. This Act does not apply to the functions of courts of law pursuant to the statutes relating to the administration of justice. Nor does this Act apply to the functions of other public agencies pursuant to the statutes relating to the administration of justice