Keeping her politics out of her ‘journalist’ duties proved to be too much for her…
Sweden’s television sidelines elections producer – reason for the dispute is over treatment of Sweden Democrat’s leader
Swedish Electoral Battles have hit a high today when the Sweden Democrats’ Chairman announced in the evening that the party will not participate at all in the joint debate tomorrow with party chairmen on the premises of the Swedish TV company.
President Jimmie Åkesson also refuses to provide interviews with broadcasters during the weekend.
The dispute originated in Åkesson’s speech in yesterday’s TV joint debate with the chairmen from multiple parties, in which he noted that immigrants are poorly employed specifically because they are not Swedish.
– They do not fit in Sweden. That is why they find it difficult to find jobs, Åkesson said.
SVT dismissed Åkesson’s statement
After the debate, SVT’s electoral producer announced the company’s rejection of Åkesson’s statement about immigrants. According to SVT, the law obliges the company to monitor the contents of its programs.
The company had recently received a ruling from the Journalism Board of Appeal about the dissuasive opinions of refugees in the news program.
Jimie Åkesson also demanded an apology from the management of the SVT last night because, in his view, the opinion expressed in the program was not degrading in any way and was not generalizing immigrants. SVT met with the party’s communications director, but did not agree to an apology.
Is it enough to leave the producer as an excuse for apology?
Tonight at about 22 o’clock, SVT announced that it had sidelined Eva Landahl, its elections producer as a result of her strong criticism of the Sweden Democrat. Landahl herself wrote on the company’s blog page that this is done so that election day will not be overshadowed by the feud between the Sweden Democrats and the Broadcasting Company.
Landahl writes that she will immediately step aside from all the remaining election programs, including the elections itself.
It is not yet known whether this is enough an apology for the Sweden Democrats, and whether the party is ready to take part in the SVT’s electoral constituencies with other parties.
