Sweden is facing right now a ‘power shift’ at the government level. Following, some in Sweden and many out in the world would have  expected an ending of the xenophobic Swedish TV reporting on Ukraine – and certainly against Russia – that has been dictated, or at least clearly inspired, by the neo-nazi statements of the man then in power: Foreign minister Carl Bildt (a NATO-information officer, according to WikiLeaks). Those ‘many’ have been however utterly wrong in their expectations. For the disinformation campaign at the Swedish SvT in support of the fascist junta in Ukraine continues unabated.

By Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli

Click on the image above for a video with a news-report by the Swedish TV, found still at their official site.

The news-report from SvT, aimed to disregard among the Swedish public the international reports showing and describing the war crimes and atrocities against Human Rights perpetrated by the Ukrainian government, was published on the 25 of September 2014. SvT used as cover for this new attack on Russia a purported “PR-coup by the Ukrainian TV in their propaganda war VS. Russia”. The title of the reportage is then “Fräck PR-kupp i ny tv-kanal” (“Bold PR-coup at a new TV-channel”). This to enable to retransmit the attacks of the Ukraine media establishment against its opponents. In other words:

1) the Swedish TV first gives the character of “news” to an event with highly questionable news-relevance (a communication between anchors of two rival outlets), and

2) in order to retransmit  political and xenophobic cultural statements against Russia,

3) Statements (by the Ukraine government’s TV) which in fact are an explicit confirmation of the theses that the Swedish TV has been insinuating all along during the Ukrainian civil war.

As the viewer can observe, only the Ukrainian TV editor-in-chief’s statements are heard in the SvT “news” (see video above) on the ‘dialogue’ with the RT anchor. The RT anchor is not even given by name. But her name is Naisa Naouai. I happen to recognize her because she interviewed me in the same program, In The Now, some time ago (the interview was about the Human Rights crisis in East Ukraine, and the video transcripts are found here). Why SvT did not care to show a comment from Naisa Naouai’s program In The Now referring to the ‘dialog’ with the Ukraine channel? Or why SvT showing Naisa Naouai on the screen without a proper statement? Is that ethical?

Any decent news report in the West media dealing specifically with “media reporting and propaganda” in a given country, or about a given country,  would have obligatory develop on the context of the media situation in such country. However, The Swedish TV in their “news-report” on the “news-reporting on Ukraine” do not say a word on that in Ukraine, all media giving a different version that that one the government on the issue Donbass-war has been silenced with force by the authorities; that TV-channels has been closed (among other prohibited the access by the public of the Russian news channels). Not a word that ALL political parties that have a different stance on the so called Anti-terrorist operations (ATO) in East Ukraine, comprised those with representation in the Parliament, have been banned and their leaders persecuted, ‘prosecuted’, or brutally beaten.

In a given moment (a couple of seconds, or so) the SvT sending shows a Russian anchor “accusing” Ukraine of waging a fascist war in [in Donbass] but cutting the part of why, or referring which are the concrete deeds, the concrete war crimes, that many media around the world – not only in Russia or Italy or even Germany – have equalized with what the Ukrainian fascists and Nazis did in Ukraine during World War II in support of Hitler forces invading that country.

Swedish TV says that those who criticize West media reporting on Ukraine are trolls payed by the Kremlin

The Swedish TV ends the sending commented above by delivering a “news” (Please observe, news as in facts-reporting), namely, according to SvT, it is “a disclosure” done by an Ukraine media (‘Nova Gazette’). In fact it is an accusation coming from the propaganda-authority of the Ukraine government. The particular thing, the aggravating aspect, is that what the Swedish TV repeats in their final remarks is not processed, qualified, or criticized or questioned in the least. The final statement is just expressed bluntly as “THE truth”: Message: “All those who criticize West media reporting on the Ukraine are Trolls payed by the Kremlin”! Several Twitter users are displayed on the screen; here we find for instance @Novorrosiyan and @Linaiolanda, who enjoy substantial followers in social media. This is what SvT says at the end of the sending, and then period (the passage beginning at position 2:36 in the video); a serious accusation for which SvT does not exhibit any evidence whatsoever; just the blunt smear:

“Among others, Nuova Gazetta has disclosed that  Russian-Net Trolls are paid to produce pro-Russian comments (in social media) to articles coming from American and British news-sites“. [End of the Swedish TV-news report].

Images above: stills from the SvT clip, displaying social-media profiles known for their report on the fascist war-crimes in East Ukraine

Using others’ statements as ‘news’ to express ideological views of their own

The Swedish Television exudes anti-Russia xenophobia, and the examples are countless. I have vivid in my memory when the SvT correspondent in Brussels referred to Ukrainian people of Russian ethnicity as to “Russian thugs”. Which is  about the same terms used by their ideological boss Carl Bildt (he has even stated he is proud of being ‘anti-soviet’ in the context of Russia 2014).  The same Swedish Foreign Minister who blamed the massacre perpetrated by Nazis in Odessa on May 2nd, 2014 – where one hundred Ukrainian ethnic-Russians were burn alive inside the Trade Union Building – to “Russian gangsters” (see The soon former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt commented the Odessa massacre and the use of force against “separatists” in Ukraine).

But also there is the cowardice element. Some journalists will not stand themselves for what they think themselves, or are instructed to say at the programs they conceive. They will hide behind the words of others. Is this another heritage Carl Bildt leaves to the “kulturarbetare” that have served him at the Swedish state-owned media?

For just some days ago Bildt denied he was he that ousted form the Foreign Ministry the awarding ceremony of the Alternative Nobel Prize to Edward Snowden. I called that an act of cowardice (See ‘Swedish official reaction to Alternative Nobel Prize given to Edward Snowden: Carl Bildt outs awarding organization from Foreign-Office premises‘).

In the case commented in this post, we could ascertain that the Swedish journalists and producers behind “Fräck PR-kupp i ny tv-kanal” demonstrated in the context that the views expressed by the editor-in-chief of the Ukraine government’s TV is the stance of their own. But the Swedish “journalists” would not dare to say, this is what we think. Not that hey have to use others’ voice. But they are more comfortable by doing it that way.

Dr Paul Craig Roberts, the notable American scholar and author of the article in Foreign Policy Journal – from which are the lines quoted above – knows the West media establishment from within, and also from above. He was editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and for a variety of MSM outlets; not to mention he was also Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan government.  Craig Roberts also said in his article referring to the West media reporting on Ukraine: “The media’s purpose was not to tell the truth, but to demonize Russia.”

No wonder things are as they are amidst Swedish self-called “cultural elites” – in true, pseudo journalists either too ignorant to grasp what geopolitics is all about in the world today, and to understand the risks and perils they contribute to put Sweden in. Or perhaps they are aware of such provocation? Or perhaps just too afraid of those in power? In any case, that is corrupted journalism, which does entail not only a dishonour for their profession but also a serves interests not all all on behalf of Sweden and on behalf of peace.

Swedish journalists and “kultur arbetare” have been converted in instruments to provoke a war with Russia, which definitely will NOT be in Sweden’s interests. But what to they care. I personally know a Swedish journalist from Stockholm which has said, “in case of a war of Sweden with Russia, well, I have already a one-way flight ticket to the U.S.”