{
  "id": "1997-october-denmark-update",
  "slug": "1997-october-denmark-update",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-october-denmark-update.html",
  "year": 1997,
  "month": "October",
  "monthNum": 10,
  "headline": "Denmark Update",
  "kicker": "",
  "author_name": "Gwen Carleton",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Capital Times",
  "summary": "Danish journalists are using Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) to investigate government effectiveness and access closed databases, with Jyllands Posten leading investigations into supreme court justices' workloads and legislators' side jobs. A consortium of Danish journalists continues pushing for standardized public access to government information, showing early signs of success.",
  "keywords": [
    "journalism",
    "Denmark",
    "databases"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Government & Politics",
    "Journalism & Newsroom"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Internet",
    "World Wide Web"
  ],
  "full_text": "In Denmark, a land of powerful government that keeps its databases closed, journalists are using CAR to shed light on their leaders' effectiveness and learn more about its people.\n\nIn recent months, the country's largest national daily newspaper, Jyllands Posten, has focused on the effectiveness of the country's supreme court.\n\nThe 18 appointed justices have many side jobs, the paper found, so journalists used CAR to analyze each justice's workload, number of cases and decisions, as well as the amount of time spent on cases.\n\nThe paper also has written about moonlighting legislators in the national parliament, and has published a list of legislators' side jobs on its Web site.\n\n\"CAR has been deeply involved in a number of lead stories,\" said Nils Mulvad, a Jyllands Posten business reporter and graduate of NICAR's boot camp. \"There have been a number of consequences politically, and on the court system's efforts to improve effectiveness - a number of votes concerning these issues are now being discussed.\"\n\nA consortium of Danish journalists and journalism educators also continue their efforts to unlock the nation's detailed and sophisticated governmental databases.\n\nThe country's tradition of zero access and the public's own reluctance to open such information has hindered the effort thus far. But journalists say encouraging signs are beginning to appear.\n\nIn response to pressure from the consortium, for example, the government has agreed to standardize rules for access to information in its various branches, something members say constitutes a small but important step forward.\n\n\"It's the character of the information that should decide access, not where the information is hidden,\" Mulvad, who also is a consortium member, said. \"The government has now accepted that.\"\n\nIn the seven months since NICAR held its first boot camp in Denmark, Jyllands Posten also has used CAR to analyze city demographics in advance of various city elections, and has expanded its Internet version of the paper. As other journalists nationwide jump on the bandwagon, Mulvad said, Jyllands Posten's CAR reporters are receiving increasingly frequent requests for lectures and training.\n\n\"Where there was uncertainty over the new methods when NICAR was here, now that attitude is gone,\" he said. \"The CAR machine is working.\"",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1996-july-jyllands-posten-website-notice",
      "score": 0.32
    },
    {
      "slug": "1999-may-discovering-data",
      "score": 0.284
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-july-danes-battle-for-access",
      "score": 0.255
    },
    {
      "slug": "2000-march-making-car-progress",
      "score": 0.191
    },
    {
      "slug": "1997-decemberjanuary-from-the-nicar-library",
      "score": 0.164
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-october-denmark-update.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-october-denmark-update.json"
}