La prensa sueca también depende del Estado

SP!KED.- Sweden’s newspaper industry has been facing financial challenges for more than a decade. Many local newspapers have long since cut down on editorial staff, merged with competitors or simply given up. At the same time, alternative online media channels have flourished. Yet while in many other countries traditional, mainstream newspapers have been forced to adapt to the new environment or go under, in Sweden some have found another way forward: an ever-closer relationship with the state.

This was made possible over 50 years ago, when Swedish politicians decided that the state was to finance political parties’ opinion-forming. At the time, the money was directly transferred to the parties, which distributed it to loyal or self-owned newspapers. This system was changed in the early 1970s so that funding no longer passed through political parties. Still, since 1971, Swedish taxpayers have spent 26 billion krona (£2.2 billion) keeping Sweden’s traditional newspapers going, and over 85 per cent of this funding has gone to newspapers with an official political designation.

Newspapers tied to the Social Democrats have received almost half of all subsidies. Those tied to the Centre Party have received four billion krona. In 2005, the Centre Party sold its media companies for 1.7 billion krona (£146million) and became one of the richest political parties in Europe.

Seguir leyendo...

***

Alemania retrocede en el ránking de libertad de prensa

***

Premio a la libertad de expresión para el redactor jefe del diario turco Hürriyet

El redactor en jefe del diario turco independiente de mayor tiraje, “Hürriyet”, es un digno ganador del premio a la libertad de expresión, según el director de DW, Peter Limbourg. “Sedat Ergin y sus colegas deben luchar a diario por su periodismo independiente y la libertad de prensa, y asumen un riego considerable”. Ello lo hace merecedor del premio otorgado por Deutsche Welle, en representación de cientos de periodistas de Turquía que tienen que trabajar en condiciones igualmente difíciles.

Seguir leyendo...