By Juho Erkheikki

The Finnish government may silence corporate whistleblowers after supporting legislation backed by Nokia Oyj to ease regulations on monitoring workers' emails, opponents say.

"It's a step toward more and more surveillance of private citizens," said Tapani Tarvainen, chairman of Electronic Frontier Finland, an advocacy group. "This could hinder information from leaking to the press. The trade secret case is clearly just a pretext."

The proposal, dubbed the "snooping" or "Nokia" law, allows companies to more easily see with whom their employees are e-mailing. Helsingin Sanomat, the country's biggest newspaper, earlier this month accused Nokia of making behind-the-scenes threats to leave the country if the bill doesn't pass. The world's biggest mobile-phone maker, which denies the allegations, wants the law to protect intellectual property rights.

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