Bohlin rejects responsibility for followers’ reactions

Swedish Minister for Civil Defence Carl Oskar Bohlin says he cannot be held responsible for his followers without introducing censorship, according to an interview with SVT for the documentary “Swedish Pain Points: The Pile On”.

Bohlin published the full interview on YouTube before the documentary was released and criticised SVT in several posts on X. The response was substantial. SVT is now publishing the short documentary featuring the interview.

Top politicians have taken an increasingly confrontational tone towards journalists. In 2024, Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson called journalists “the establishment” in his widely discussed “Address to the Nation” after TV4’s investigation “Undercover in the Troll Factory”. Since then, several leading politicians have publicly intensified their criticism of the media.

“In Sweden, party leaders have issued very sweeping criticism of Swedish news media, calling them ‘the establishment’ and so on. That kind of criticism has spread to the established parties, such as the Moderates,” said Peter Jakobsson, associate professor of media and communication studies at Uppsala University.

Jakobsson says Bohlin is an example of this development. Bohlin strongly rejects that assessment in the interview with SVT.

Bohlin has used expressions such as “established media distort and misrepresent” and “establishment-like”. He says, however, that his posts and statements concern individual publications.

“They lump the concept of media criticism together into one homogeneous entity, bring in all kinds of miscellaneous material and then try to pin it on me because I criticise specific things,” he said.

Bohlin uploaded the interview in full on YouTube the day after it was recorded, before the documentary was published, and posted several critical comments about SVT on X.

He has previously questioned the reporter behind an Aftonbladet investigation into security shortcomings and volunteer work at the prime minister’s wife’s conference centre.

“It was a statement of fact. Within the limits of my freedom of expression, I must be able to take part in a debate about media criticism,” Bohlin said.

About the documentary series

“Swedish Pain Points: The Pile On” is the seventh instalment in a series of SVT news documentaries in which reporters examine contentious issues in public debate and present different perspectives.

The series has previously covered migration policy, climate change and petrol prices, controversial housing construction, private health insurance, school choices for pupils needing additional support, and the conflict between reindeer herding and the mining industry.

This instalment focuses on the changing media landscape and politicians’ increasingly forceful criticism of the media during the election campaign. Follow-up studio discussions with the reporters are also available on SVT Play.