Big Words, Then a Character Assassination

Aftonbladet’s credibility, Peter Wennblad argues, collapsed faster than the democratic order the newspaper says it is defending. In a sharply critical column for Svenska Dagbladet, he compares the paper’s recent rhetoric with its treatment of rival journalists and publications.

The dispute began in early August, when Aftonbladet editor-in-chief Karin Schmidt warned readers about the need to defend free journalism and Sweden’s “democratic culture.” Her comments followed a post by Sweden Democrat Richard Jomshof, who compared Aftonbladet political editor Anders Lindberg to Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian traitor who collaborated with Nazi Germany. Schmidt said society was witnessing a shift and urged people to react before boundaries moved further.

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We are seeing a shift. (...) Everyone should stop and react already now.

Wennblad now turns that warning back on Aftonbladet. He points to the space given to columnist Jan Guillou to attack Expressen investigative reporter Inas Hamdan over her reporting on antisemitism and support for terrorism within the Left Party. Guillou compared Hamdan’s work with fabricated Nazi press reports about Jewish crime in the 1930s, and accused Expressen and other media that followed the investigation of “betrayal of journalism.”

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Democracies do not disappear overnight. It happens gradually, one word becomes harsher, a norm shifts a few centimeters, a boundary is crossed without anything happening.

He also cites a recent intervention by Aftonbladet editorial writer Susanna Kierkegaard, who condemned the publication Kvartal in videos posted on Instagram and TikTok. Kierkegaard criticized reporter Federico Moreno’s coverage of Social Democrats canvassing for votes in Rosengård, saying it encouraged conspiracy theories and racism. She also argued that “journalist” should be a protected professional title.

Wennblad’s conclusion is pointed: the democracy Schmidt warned about still appears to be in good health, but Aftonbladet’s own credibility did not last even a month.

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Betrayal of journalism