Shortly after Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, the EU Council decided to ban Russian state-controlled media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik within the EU. But Staffan Dahllöf a Swedish freelance journalist reconsiders that more Swedish media outlets should circumvent the ban on content from Russian media.
The censorship decision was criticized by the European Federation of Journalists, the Swedish Union of Journalists (Journalistförbundet), and the freedom of expression expert Nils Funcke, among others, as a restriction of the well-established Swedish constitutionally protected freedom of expression.
In a debate article in the Union of Journalists’ own paper “Journalisten”, freelance journalist and EU expert Staffan Dahllöf writes that the “Kvartal Magazine” (kvartal.se) is probably breaking the law because the site repeatedly refers to content from RT.
“As citizens – and as journalists – we should be able to assume that laws are followed, that violations are prosecuted, and that unconstitutional decisions are reversed. Until that happens, all that remains is for more people to follow in Kvartal’s footsteps,” Dahllöf writes.
In other words, Dahllöf suggests that Swedish journalists should challenge the new Swedish censor system.
Both RT and Sputnik are however accessible in August 2023 if a VPN tunnel is used.
Russia responds?
Anna-Lena Laurén, a Swedish correspondent for the Swedish daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter (dn.se), Svenska Dagbladet (svd.se), and also Hufvudstadsbladet (hbl.fi), in August 2023 refused new accreditation in Russia. She was also forced to leave Russia according to Dagens Nyheter.
She has worked in Russia for 16 years and has been reporting for DN.se since 2016. Her angle is always negative and condescending when writing about Russia and Putin.
Laurén will continue to report about Russia but from Finland, which became a NATO member in 2023.
“I stayed in Russia as long as I could – because I wanted to do my job. Now it is over. It was inevitable,” writes Anna-Lena Laurén in a column in DN.
Text and translations by NewsVoice, editorial office. Source: Journalisten.se