Published September 9, 2024 at 08:28
Media. Journalist and author Chris Forsne has participated in an interview with Swebbtv where she talks about her many years in foreign affairs coverage on state-run Swedish Television and about her experiences of the intellectual climate in journalistic circles.
Share the article
TwittraShare
— I remember when I said something about Ukraine, that you have to put effort into trying to start peace negotiations there, and then the answer was: Putin whore, says Forsne, among other things, in the interview.
It is not clear who made that comment, but in the interview Forsne describes her experience with the Swedish journalists and compares it to what it looks like in France, which she covered as a foreign correspondent for Sveriges Television for many years in the 1980s and 90s.< /p>— The discussions are the same, but the difference is that in France you can talk about controversial and serious political issues and debate hard, but then you are good friends afterwards. We can't do that in Sweden, but here we get rid of fascists, right-wing extremists and so on, she notes.
Chris Forsne also notes that when public service produces features today, it is strikingly often an external production company that manages the production. These companies often receive large parts of their income from the business world and various large companies, and they are therefore in a position of commercial dependence that rhymes badly with SVT's claim that their broadcasts constitute «free and independent television».
The issue recently came to the fore when DN fired several freelancejournalists who also worked for Handelsbanken's YouTube channel EFN, whose content is produced by Leo Lagercrantz Communication and formerly Robert Aschberg's production company Strix.
DN's editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski claimed that can be questioned as an independent journalist if you are also dependent on a certain major bank for your livelihood.
In the interview with Swebbtv, Chris Forsne states that external production companies contribute to alignment and anxiety in the content broadcast on SR and SVT, and that it is hardly compatible with the independence that public service claims to be.
When Swebbtv's anchor Mikael Willgert brings up a feature in Sveriges Radio's specialist program «The Media», which was about alternative media, Forsne states that the program is made by an external production company and that this may be the reason why the feature is predictable and that as usual Chang Frick and the like are interviewed. outside the limits set by the management at Sveriges Radio. So it's very typical of how you work, notes Chris Forsne.