“Svenska Nyheter” mocked tree huggers – blamed

Published 7 May 2024 at 11.56

Cultural news. The humor program “Svenska Nyheter” described a female course leader in “forest bathing” in a ridiculous way – with what could be perceived as sexual allusions. This is the opinion of the Media Ethics Committee, which blames Sweden's Television for the feature.

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The feature, which was broadcast in September 2023, was about the autumn budget that the government had presented during the same week that the program was broadcast and which, among other things, meant less funding for the student unions.

The government's argument was that the student unions' activities must become more job-creating.

The segment joked, among other things, that it was best that study unions were prepared for poverty, with examples such as: “this is how you make study materials from cones and playdough” and “goodies that are in the trash can”. There were further jokes about what motives the government could possibly have for “slaughtering public education”, about “everything should lead to jobs and be measured in numbers and figures” and about the “strangeness” in the fact that the moderate Citizen's School's offer consisted, among other things, of teach how a “sosserose” was embroidered.

The program director also said:

– I understand that some courses are a bit fuzzy, but there must be some job-creating course, right? Can I just get one more?

After this sentence, a YouTube clip from April 2021 was shown which was part of the marketing and information about the “forest bathing” course at Medborgarskolan. The clip showed a woman standing close to a tree, which she was embracing. The woman had put her cheek against the tree and at the same time the woman's voice was heard saying: “I can invite you in to discover the different textures that are around us.”

In the clip, the woman's full name and title were further reproduced in a sign , forest therapy guide. Another sign also read: “Being instead of doing – use your senses”.

The presenter continued:

– It was from the Skogsbad course. I don't know, does the government really mean that this pine teller's course would not be job-creating? That the pine partyer there wouldn't have hundreds of employers after him?

More examples of courses marketed by student unions were then mentioned, such as “Make a diaper cake at the next baby shower” and “Unreserved dance”.

The woman reported the SVT feature herself and stated that it was possible to identify her by image, sound, job title and name. According to the woman, the purpose of the feature would obviously be to ridicule student unions for their “flume courses”. At the end of the clip, the presenter referred to the complainant as “pine talker” and “pine feaster”. In addition to being extremely poor attempts at alliteration, the latter word, according to the complainant, constituted a crude and brutal sexual allusion that was downright offensive.

In the Media Ombudsman's assessment, the public interest is weighed against the consideration that should be given to the privacy of the individual. MO states that, apart from the responsible minister, the reporter is the only person who appears with a picture, voice, full name and title in the relevant element. According to MO, there is no reason to question that the notifier has had a negative experience of the whole thing, and of being called a “pine fiend” and a “pine pine”.

“That as a private person and through no fault of his own in a nationwide program to be ridiculed in its professional practice, and that with sexual allusions, is an intrusion into the privacy of the complainant. MO fully understands that it is about humor and satire, and that SVT's intention was not to harm anyone. But there is not some public interest that justifies that the complainant, who has no position in the public eye, was exposed in the way that happened. The discomfort the complainant experienced has thus caused her an unjustifiable publicity loss. For that, the media should be blamed.

< p>The media ethics board shares MO's assessment and blames Sweden's Television for having violated good journalistic practice.