Sweden’s broadcasting watchdog was censuring an Oprah Winfrey talk show for showing bias toward a U.S. military attack on Iraq. The censure means Swedish television network TV4, which broadcast the show in February, must publish the decision but there are no legal or financial penalties. Annelie Ulfhielm, an official of Sweden’s Broadcasting Commission, said:
Different views were expressed, but all longer remarks gave voice to the opinion that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States and should be the target of attack.
The Swedish government strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying it lacked a U.N. Security Council mandate. A TV4 spokesman said the Oprah Winfrey show usually drew an audience of about 100,000-140,000 Swedes, making it one of Sweden’s more popular day-time television programs.
Just as people were getting carried away with the NO result of the Swedish referendum on the euro, the above news items is a timely reminder of the fact that the Swedes are even further down the statist route than most of Europe. A frightening thought indeed. Obviously, the Swedish ‘authorities’ felt that they had to ‘protect’ the country from the US imperialism as perpetrated by the one and only Oprah. Something’s rotten in the state of…er… Sweden?
I’m wondering where this meme came from that the Swede’s did this for anything other than self interest about their state benefits package 😉
How often does the Swedish government prevent it’s people from hearing opinions it doesn’t like?
Doesn’t this type of censorship bother the Swedish citizens? It would bother me.
I always thought Sweden was a liberal country. Guess not.
Can’t understand it myself. It’s their welfare state the Swedes are worried about, not their liberty…
Is there a government flunkie, sitting in the bowels of a ministry somewhere in Stockholm with a stopwatch in his hand, timing this crap out?
I had to read the Reuters report a couple of times before I was really sure that I understood what was going on here….
The Swedish TV watchdog actually believes that the Swedish people are so dimwitted that they don’t understand the concept that people from other countries have different viewpoints to the Swedish Government… so it issued a “censure” to inform them of it!
In other words – The Swedish TV watchdog has just issued a proclamation stating that it believes all Swedish TV viewers are morons!
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Perhaps they got confused between Swedes and Turnips?
This falls in line with some of Sweden’s other anti-free speech policies. It is now illegal there for anyone to speak disparagingly of homosexuality, including churches.
Depressing to learn that as many as 140,000 Swedes watch the Oprah Winfrey show, one US product that should remain on the far side of the Atlantic. I shudder to think how many Brits watch it. Ghastly…
Straight from your loyal Sweden correspondent:
This isn’t really a government agency per se, but rather a common “bias” watchdog for the state funded channels and TV4. Being ‘censured’ by the board has no legal implications, even though the verdict has to be read on the air. Other private stations are not subject to “Granskningnämnden’s” actions.
As for actual censorship, that is banned in Sweden. The government may sanction certain forms of speech, but it may never confiscate material, or prevent publication in any way.
The real worry in Sweden, liberty wise, are ‘hate speech laws’, i.e. “Hets mot Folkgrupp”, a law that keeps expanding, both in wording and implementation, in order to outlaw politically incorrect expression. Keep in mind that the slippery slope is very real indeed when it comes to these kinds of laws.
/Döbeln
-Stabil som fan!
Thanks,Döbeln.We have a similar board in Finland,which regularly scolds newspapers and other media for work that is not in ‘good journalistic practice’.They’re semi-official,in the sense that they have no legal powers,they just publish their opinion.
It’s not censorship.
It’s not censorship.
No, just an utter waste of time and money.
Here is a heretical question on a tangential topic: Sweden’s NO to the Euro:
Since it seems Sweden is *more* socialist than the EU in general – maybe joining the Euro would have actually meant a reduction in the degree of socialism, a promotion of a more liberal policy – less taxes, less deficit, etc. Maybe the Euro also makes sense economically, and the no vote was more Nationalistic than economic – the Krona beeing more of a symbol of sovereignity and a tool of government domination than a tool for promoting liberty.
The opinion of our Swedish correspontents on this will be much appreciated.
it’s not censorship
I draw your attention to:
even though the verdict has to be read on the air
If that’s true, then that *is* censorship. Forced self-denigrating speech is a more unusual form of censorship than prohibition of forbidden speech, but that’s what it is nonetheless.
My impression is that the Swedes are so far gone down the statist pike that joining the Euro would actually mean they would have to give up some of it. I’m all for contries rejecting the Euro, but I’m not about to consider the Swedish model as a sane alternative.
I’m with Dave on this one. Who, precisely, was getting ‘carried away?’
And their PM thinks Bush just fell off the turnip truck? It seems the Swedish public are an astute bunch (no to the Euro) but are led by utter morons.
Er, Patrick: Everybody seemed to be getting carried away – read the comments on the post that announce the result of the Euro referendum. The overall spirit is – go, Swedes! well done on the Euro etc. Also, see the comment below yours…
Chris Josephson and everyone else,
a common thing between all socialist countries is propaganda. How many during the 20’s and 30’s and onward thought the Soviet Union was heaven on earth? What about Cuba? Giving the impression that a country with socialism is going great is the most important thing you can do. Robert Conquest was, for example, one of very very few (if not alone) historians who actually gave an accurate description of what was going on in, for example, Harvest of Sorrow. Many laughed at his “exaggerated” statistics of how many Ukrainian pesants died. I’m not surprised at all that the picture of Sweden people all over the world share is not close to reality. Of course, there has not been any manslaughter here of the same scope as in the Soviet Union (and in Cuba?), but here it’s more of a mindslaughter, which works pretty well.
Joe,
yep! The Glorious State knows what’s best for its citizens. Capitalism is eeevil and The Lord State must save us all from it. I can’t take care of myself, not at all! 😉
Jacob,
yeah, probably more socialist. One thing that I was touching on earlier is that I suspect that this NO to the EURO will turn Sweden further left and deeper into the bottomless socialist pit. The only three parties that had an official party line of NO were Vänsterpartiet (The Left party – communists and hardcore socialists), Miljöpartiet (The Green Party – freaked out nature people) and Centerpariet (The Center Party – originally for peasants but it is what it is, between left and right). The two first ones mentioned are socialists/communists and the media here proclaimed all of them to be winners…so no, it’s not that encouraging to see smiling communists and socialists on my TV screen.
Something is very rotten in Sweden.
Jacob,
Well that was actually an argument on the NO side, “if we join the Euro we will have to lower the taxes, and then we cant keep the social welfare we have now”. Pretty powerful argument in a country where people are taxed so hard they are forced to rely on the state funded hospitals, schools and such, only the richest can afford both the taxes and then pay for private alternatives too. Much more efficient way to coerce people then using blunt force…
jeanne,
Yes, the implication is there anyway. Some shows though have made it a sport to get as many of those as possible, sort of like a scar to look cool, but most prefer to “stay in line”, since it’s not considered “good journalistic practise” to get one of those.
It’s important to remember that the swedish television has a contract with the state to provide “good information and educate the citizen” or whatever the exact quoute is. This watchdog is who checks that they live up to the contract.
One interesting thing here is that the watchdog only watches the three channels that’s not on satellite. They do not watch those satellites. This lead to a drive from the minister in charge to get all citizens to use digital-TV instead of a satellite dish. The digital-TVs main asset in that regard is that it only allows 8 channels, and guess who decides what channels should be allowed???
It was a major flop, and cost lots of money, but that’s just tax payers money, and taxes can always be raised… 😛
For a very clever take on Sweden’s economy, read the chapter on Sweden in P J O’Rourke’s Eat The Rich. Even leavened with the humourous writing of the formidably funny PJ, it makes grim reading.
Johan:
Thanks for the info..
Döbeln:
We’re facing the same ‘slippery slope’ in the US with ‘hate speech’ as well. We have to put a stop to this infringement on free speech.
Seems I was right in guessing that a YES vote on the Euro would have been better for liberty in Sweden, and the celebration of the NO outcome wasn’t entirely rational, it was more of an emotional response.
Next question – how about Britain ?
Jacob,
despite the probable turn to heavy left I would still argue that our NO is worth celebrating. This might force the government, who were vividly YES, to cooperate with the parties on the right in order to “save” the Swedish economy and thus turning slightly away from a disastrous left economic turn. Only time can show which way it’ll go.
“Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.”
to say that one has freedom of speech but not freedom of economy means that one has no freedom at all. If you don’t have the right to succeed and fail by your own will; which is endemically a demonstration of free speech, why should it matter if you can say one thing and not the other. A suppression of economic desires is a suppression of all desires.
As an Objectivist living in Sweden (and NOT Swedish!) I can assure that this country is so far gone that it is beyond saving. The ultimate end will be far worse than anything the former Soviet Union suffered because there, at least, people understood that they were being fed propaganda. Here people are completely unaware of what is going on.
Just today in the daily Stockholm City newspaper there were several articles highlighting the state of chaos, disrepair and increasing frequency of accidents on the city’s subway system (several fires, doors falling cars, an 83% increase of cancelations over the past year, etc.). One of the organization’s own board members declared that it is headed for complete destruction. (Sounds like Atlas Shrugged.) Another article, IN THE SAME ISSUE, reported how happy Stockholm residents are with their city – citing as ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS: Their public transport system!
I wouldn’t waste any time worrying about this country. It is beyond the point of no return. I only hope that the corruption of statist ideologies comes to light in time to act as a wake up call for the USA to reverse its decline into socialism.