Letter: People must be allowed to warn others about dangerous neighbours

Sweden’s defamation laws should change so private individuals can share truthful information about other people, argues Mattias Nilsson in a letter to Dagens Nyheter.

Nilsson writes that defamation generally means spreading false information to damage someone’s reputation, which he says should remain illegal. Sweden is unusual, he argues, because publicly making a negative statement about someone can be unlawful even when the statement is true.

He points to a hypothetical case involving a member of parliament convicted of a crime. If everyone were equal before the law, he says, reporting the conviction would be impossible because it could constitute defamation. Swedish law, however, provides an exception when journalists discuss public figures, allowing misconduct by people in power to be exposed.

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Defamation laws should be changed so that private individuals are allowed to spread truthful information about others.

Nilsson argues that the same principle may be needed locally. He imagines a neighbour with an aggressive fighting dog and parents worried about their children. A person who tells a neighbourhood association that the neighbour was previously convicted of causing bodily harm with another dog could risk a defamation conviction, even though the conviction is a public record.

“I have difficulty seeing that anyone, except perhaps the occasional journalist or lawyer, thinks this is a good arrangement,” Nilsson writes. Dagens Nyheter identifies the text as a reader’s letter, with the writer responsible for the opinions expressed.

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I have difficulty seeing that anyone, except perhaps the occasional journalist or lawyer, thinks this is a good arrangement.