Press freedom and the Swedish election

ٍSwedish papers are complaining about current tendencies towards decreasing their right to print whatever they want. A majority the MPs want to limit freedom of press and freedom of speech. The Swedish Newpaper Publisher's Association believes that such attitudes among the politicians may cause the public to take freedom of speech for granted - and they're afraid that over time we may lose our democratic right to independent information. That's why they've organized a campaign for their 168 members (newspapers) to start a debate on press freedom in Sweden.




It's amazing how a blank newspaper is striking to the eye. John thought this could be seen as a preemptive strike against censorship, but I think it's quite catchy.

Not surprisingly, I guess, Aftonbladet and Expressen and stuff isn't part of this campaign. I guess they're too full of crap and corporate produced news that it doesn't really matter. According to Freedomhouse.org, who has rated the freedom of press in different (186 of them) countries in the world, Sweden is doing pretty good. I guess that's when you have something to lose.

On a scale from 0 to 100, Sweden has 10 points, and is number three in the world, with Norway and Denmark (Finland and Iceland on top), France is number 41 and still considered free (21p), Italy is number 79 and only partly free. I guess that's what you get after while with Berlusconi. Maybe they'll do better next year, though Berlusconi probably still owns stuff.

But maybe the press (newspapers and TV) should take a little more care of their right themselves too - and not write about World of Warcraft, and poorly hidden adverts for new consumer electronics, and not resend corporate sponsored-and-produced "news". And maybe be a litte bit more concerned about what they want to tell instead of what we want to hear...

But I'm a commie, according to John. We took a "what party suits you best test" online, since the Swedish elections are coming up. Since we've been paying attention lately, this is a little interesting - we now know a little more about the issues. I still have a problem with questions like "Do you think we should have more of...". I don't know how it is now, and more is then difficult.

Another surprise, is that the parties have slightle different opinion than in Norway. Consider the left parties in Sweden and Norway; they are both called "left" "or "venstre" or "vänster")

Norway:

Sweden:


This little difference in logo represents, unsurprisingly, that the Swedish one is a little bit more to the left... The Norwegian one is a member of "The Liberal International" and is perhaps more comparable to the Swedish "Folkpartiet", and the difference between Vänster and Folkpartiet is quite big. So, apparently, I'm a bit closer to the Swedish lefts than the Norwegian ones, and the Swedish "Vänster" is closer to the Socialist Left-dudes in Norway.

This is the result of my test, which was a little surprising to me, in the position of the Vänster:


(click to take the test)

So to attempt a convertion table:

Norway -> Sweden
Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) -> Vänstern
Miljøpartiet de Grønne ~> Miljöpartiet de Gröna, but with the position of SV.
Høyre -> Moderaterna
Venstre -> Folkpartiet
Kristelig Folkeparti -> Kristdemokratene
Senterpartiet not quite -> Centerpartiet (Not quite. These dudes are special, farther right, and nobody is decentralizing here...)
Fremskrittspartiet -> ? I thought this was Folkpartiet, but now I'm not sure.

Is this right?