The purpose of this study is to investigate, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, how the officals freedom of information is expressed in policy documents from Swedish universities, colleges and upper secondary schools. The purpose is broken down into two different - but interconneted parts. The first part investigates and analyzes the issue of transparency in ‘general’ versus ‘image’ and market thinking through “our public ethos”. The second part concerns the status of officials rights of freedom of information in relation to other reaction possibilities. A democracy perspective is here set against a market perspective. Furthermore, differences and similarities in dominating perspectives and the position of freedom of information between these documents current descriptions is to be elucidated. 

The first question is answered on the basis of our public ethos theory combined with Fredriksson and Palla's model of six principles for government communication. The results show that the market perspective dominates both in the universities and college documents, as well as in the documents that apply to upper secondary schools. The second question is answered through Lundquist's model of different reaction possibilities. The results show that the reaction ‘whisper’ (freedom of information) has a greater emphasis in the documents that apply to upper secondary schools than those of universities and colleges.