GOING THROUGH the Swedish Prime Minister's mail is practically a tourist attraction, as popular among visiting journalists as the guided tour of Stockholm.
Nothing convinces a sceptical reporter that the Swedes truly believe in openness, transparency and accountability more than exercising their right to see all the prime minister's letters.
That right, which is an expression of the press freedom and freedom of expression laws, is available to every citizen. And because no one has the right to ask who a person is or why they want to see the mail - or any other official document for that matter - in practice anyone, citizen or not, can have a good poke through the post.
Every day the letters received by the prime minister are set out on a desk. Here are letters from elderly people asking their pensions, unemployed people seeking work, children asking questions for projects and people simply seeking an autograph. There are also the letters from other politicians and other governments.
Although our own Government's acceptance of openness has been somewhat slow, Mr Bruton's correspondence to the Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, is available along with all the other letters.
Since July, Mr Bruton has written to Mr Persson three times. In July he replied to Mr Persson, who was seeking the State's support for Sweden's candidature for a seat on the UN Security Council for the period 1997-1998, saying Sweden's request would be brought to the attention of Ireland's permanent representation and given favourable attention.
Mr Bruton reminded Mr Persson of Ireland and Sweden's similar, long traditions of peacekeeping and that Irish and Swedish troops were serving together. Ireland, he said would be seeking Sweden's vote for a seat on the Security Council in 2001 and 2002.
In August, Mr Bruton wrote of his concern about the dangers "of what appears to be a retreat from the multilateral approach to world problems which has been developing over the past half century. The most obvious indication of this and the most serious, is the present financial crisis of the United Nations and the unwillingness of some member states to meet their financial commitments to the organisation." Mr Bruton suggested that the governments of Ireland and Sweden, committed as both are to a multilateral approach to world problems, work together to strengthen support for the UN.
On December 10th, Mr Bruton wrote to Mr Persson about the European Council meeting in Dublin. In that letter, Mr Bruton outlined how he thought the Dublin meeting would go, who would attend and where the emphasis should be placed. He also included an agenda for Mr Persson.
Not all letters are available though it is law that all letters are listed with an outline of what they are about. A letter to Mr Persson from Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany concerning economic co operation was not available, though a German journalist appealed against the decision to declare it secret.
The senior registry clerk at the prime minister's office, Ms Vivian Liliansdotter, registers about 70 documents a day. She estimates that about 100 a year are secret.
There is no loop hole in the law. If the prime minister receives a letter at home, he has to ensure it is registered and if he fails to do so, he has broken the law.
Sweden's laws on the press and free expression date back more than 200 years. Such is the Swedes' commitment to a free media that not only may public servants leak information, but if they do so there can be no inquiry. It is also contrary to law for a journalist to disclose his or her source of information.
Recently a senior politician, who was being spoken of as the next prime minister, resigned when the media investigated the use of her government issued credit card.
Even though no fraud was found, or even suggested, it was thought she had not shown the necessary care in using state money, so she resigned.
South of Stockholm is the town of Sodertalje. Every day, the local newspaper receives a fax listing the letters received by and sent out by the local authority. The newspaper can then request anything of interest