Press in Sweden
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 27 January 2016 07:24
- Written by germany
Press situation in Sweden
1. How is the situation in your country? How is free press/media saved by government law?
In Sweden we have a founding constitution law (Grundlagen Yttrandefrihet) that involves freedom of speech. This law is one of four that are almost unchangeable, only with a special set of votes can change them. This law prevents the government from stopping people from saying what they want, when they want it.
The freedom of writing (Pressfrihetsförordningen) is another founding constitution law. This law prevents the government from censuring our media and press. It also allows media to look into official government work, and later print it in the press.
2. Situation of the local press?
The printed papers are disappearing more and more in Sweden, as we rather read our news on the Internet with instant access to the latest news than subscribing to one daily report. This results in loss of advertising and advertisers for paper news companies, which means that the paper loses a lot of money. That in turn will result in even more papers closing down, and then we have downward spiral for the local press, as well as some of the national.
We also have a problem with the owners of our papers, as it’s not unusual that one company owns several newspapers in the same city. Papers in which has different political agendas. This affects the content of the news, and we might not get as much variations that a democracy needs.
3. What do we have to do to save the free press in the future?
It’s important not to let government take control of media, or letting them censor it. We need various places to find information and reliable sources. We need laws to protect our rights to say and write what we want. Free press is the very base of a democratic country and democracy in the world.
We also need Public Service, PS, to get an objective view on news. PS aren’t influenced by any parties, companies or anything that might change the content of the news, and is constantly watched by the people.
The Swedish population has an issue with being critical when it comes to sources. This results in disinformation, and incorrect news. It’s very important that we stop this in democratic countries, because misinformed press could lead to people basing their votes on information that isn’t correct.