Published 25 March 2024 at 12.03
Media. Expressen's editor-in-chief Klas Granström is sentenced to pay a 40-day fine for defaming a climate activist, Kulturnyheterna reports.
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The case concerns an article published by Expressen in September 2022 which was about a climate action on E4 outside Stockholm that caused long queues and led to an ambulance getting stuck during an emergency.
After the incident, ten climate activists were arrested on suspicion of sabotage. Expressen's article contained the names, photos, places of residence and occupations of the activists, as well as information about their previous participation in other actions and crimes.
One of the banned activists sued Expressen for gross defamation, arguing that he and the others did not were public figures.
The so-called freedom of expression jury considered that Expressen's editor-in-chief Klas Granström was guilty of gross defamation due to an incorrect statement of facts in the article. Namely, it was claimed that the climate activist was charged with violent resistance, even though the charges had been dropped when the article was published. The Stockholm District Court partly agrees with the jury, but considers that it was a matter of normal degree defamation, not gross defamation.