SDP leader wants government to withdraw Lex Nokia

Left Alliamce leader also calls for suspension of controversial bill

Jutta Urpilainen

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Opposition Social Democratic Party chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen is calling on the government to withdraw the controversial bill known as Lex Nokia from Parliament so that further changes might be enacted.
      The bill would amend legislation on the confidentiality of electronic communications, and would give employers the right to access information on senders and recipients of employee e-mail, if they suspect that corporate secrets are being leaked.
     
Urpilainen says that the SDP will vote against the bill if the government “stubbornly” keeps to the “confused proposal that is open to different interpretations” in Parliament. She feels that the proposal needs fixing at many levels.
      “The concept of a ‘community subscriber’ is too broad, first of all. It includes universities, libraries, and so on. The bill should have been restricted to apply only to an e-mail connection offered by an employer at the workplace”, Urpilainen says.
     
Urpilainen got support from one government party MP - Jyrki Kasvi (Green), who says that the success of the disputed proposal depends exclusively on the unity of the opposition.
      “Now, if ever, Jutta Urpilainen could show her doubters who leads the opposition”, Kasvi wrote in his blog.
     
During Parliamentary question time on Thursday, Esko-Juhani Tennilä (Left) was the only one who asked Minister of Communications Suvi Lindén if she really feels that employers are entitled to demand that an employee disrobe if there is a suspicion that the employee is leaking company secrets.
      Urpilainen said that she would have wanted to put a follow-up question to Lindén, but time ran out.
     
Left Alliance chairman Martti Korhonen reacted to comments by Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen (Nat. Coalition Party), who said that he had not read the bill, and would not comment on the controversial statement.
      “I am surprised that the leader of the ministerial group says that he does not know the legislation. It is quite inconceivable. It fits with other policy making of the National Coalition Party, which seems to lean on mental impressions and slogans from consultants”, said Korhonen, who chairs the Parliamentary committee on transport and communications.
      Korhonen also called on the government to withdraw its bill.
      “The law only makes the life of companies more difficult, causing more harm than good. In order to be implemented, the employer needs to close down data systems and Facebooks, and everything else”, Korhonen says.
      “The proposal does not define what a corporate secret is, and what a wrongdoing is. It is absolutely of a bygone world.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  NBI rejects Lex Nokia (11.2.2009)
  Lex Nokia furore fuelled further by ministeŕs strip-search remark (13.2.2009)
  National Audit Office denounces preparation of Lex Nokia (12.2.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat