Sweden was the first country in the world to legislate the right to free speech in 1766. A world memory is a document or collection in an archive or library that is considered to have great value for humanity.
The source material is preserved at the National Archives and the National Library of Sweden, and it is these documents that are now given world memory status. "Everything is allowed except what is forbidden – there is a certain amount of secrecy, and we still have that today," says Anna Karin Hermodsson, deputy national antiquarian.