Offentliganställdas yttrandefrihet på sociala medier : En studie av svensk rätt vid kritiska yttranden gjorda av offentligt anställda på sociala medier

Sammanfattning: Today, social media is the most important place for the exercise of freedom of expression. Asprivate individuals, we have an extensive right to express ourselves, but as employees, therights differ. Private employees are not covered by the Swedish constitutions concerningfreedom of expression, which means that public employees have a broader right to expressthemselves in working life. Therefore, this essay handles employees in the public sector.Freedom of expression is regulated in several places in both Sweden's constitutions and in EUlaw. The purpose of this essay is therefore to investigate how the various regulations,regarding freedom of expression on social media, relate to each other. The purpose is also toinvestigate the extent to which an authority may intervene against an employee who has madea critical statement on social media. In order to achieve theses purposes, national andinternational regulations have been examined. Case law from the Swedish ombudsmen hasalso been analyzed.The study shows that public employees mainly receive protection through RF, and notthrough YGL, when they express their opinion on social media. The study also shows that theprotection between RF and ECHR is closely consistent, but if an authority violates the variousregulations the consequences differ, mainly regarding the penalties. Case law also shows thatauthorities seldom have the right to intervene against an employee who has expressed criticalopinions on social media. The intervention has only been allowed in certain situations, forexample when the published information is covered by confidentiality or is consideredcriminal. In summary, the Swedish Ombudsmen emphasize the employees' freedom ofexpression very strongly.