In the Public Interest

更新：2023-11-22

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[00:01.50]Lesson 53
[00:03.68]In the public interest
[00:12.41]What could not be reported in the official files?
[00:18.03]The Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their enlightened social policies.
[00:25.77]Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from high-handed or incompetent public officers.
[00:34.68]The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too.
[00:40.53]The Swedes were the first to recognize that public officials like civil servants,
[00:46.23]police officers, health inspectors or tax-collectors can make mistakes
[00:51.74]or act over-zealously in the belief that they are serving the public.
[00:56.76]As long ago as 1809,
[00:59.90]the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to safeguard the interest of the individual.
[01:05.94]A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a person
[01:11.52]who is suitably qualified to investigate private grievances against the State.
[01:17.18]The official title of the person is 'Justiteombudsman', but the Swedes commonly refer to him as the 'J.O.' or 'Ombudsman'.
[01:28.07]The Ombudsman is not subject to political pressure.
[01:32.06]He investigates complaints large and small that come to him from all levels of society.
[01:38.03]As complaints must be made in writing, the Ombudsman receives an average of 1, 200 letters a year.
[01:46.90]He has eight lawyer assistants to help him and he examines every single letter in detail.
[01:53.43]There is nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work,
[01:56.77]for his correspondence is open to public inspection.
[02:00.69]If a citizen's complaint is justified the Ombudsman will act on his behalf.
[02:06.78]The action he takes varies according to the nature of the complaint.
[02:11.29]He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law be altered.
[02:17.85]The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work.
[02:22.94]A foreigner living in a Swedish village wrote to the Ombudsman complaining that he had been ill-treated by the police,
[02:30.79]simply because he was a foreigner.
[02:33.57]The Ombudsman immediately wrote to the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a record of the case.
[02:40.81]There was nothing in the record to show that the foreigner's complaint was justified
[02:45.95]and the Chief of Police strongly denied the accusation.
[02:49.98]It was impossible for the Ombudsman to take action,
[02:53.64]but when he received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village,
[02:59.02]he immediately sent one of his lawyers to investigate the matter.
[03:03.54]The lawyer ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners on several occasions.
[03:11.07]The fact that the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could not be recorded in the official files.
[03:17.79]It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to check the facts.
[03:25.42]The policeman in question was severely reprimanded
[03:28.67]and was informed that if any further complaints were lodged against him, he would be prosecuted.
[03:34.56]The Ombudsman's prompt action at once put an end to an unpleasant practice which might have gone unnoticed.