Collapse, in the sense of total disintegration.
That is the situation in the parliamentary committee investigating the future of the public service. Both sources with access to the investigation and outside confirm that the Tidö parties intend to push through extensive cutbacks and tightened governance and scrutiny. This is under the pretext of increasing trust in SVT, SR and UR among the critics within, above all, SD and M.
On Monday, May 13, the chairman of the committee, the former KD leader Göran Hägglund, will hand over the proposals from the investigation “Long-term conditions for a stable and independent public service”. It is two weeks later than expected. The explanation is the division that arose at the end of the investigative work. During the year the committee worked, Göran Hägglund himself and several members have been intensively focused on finding broad agreements between the Tidö parties and the opposition. They have failed.
So what do we know about? the investigation proposal?
SR, SVT and UR are denied their demands for more money. They don’t even get half of what they asked for. The allocation, during the next permit period from 2026 to 2033, will only be an increase of 1 percent towards the end. In the first year, a 3 percent increase is proposed, but then the mark-up is reduced.
Considering the general cost increases such as salaries, more expensive program rights, technology investments in the wake of, among other things, AI and increased responsibility for preparedness, the inquiry’s proposal involves substantial reductions that will obviously affect the breadth of the program range.
SR and SVT are already implementing savings of 650 million with the result that hundreds of jobs disappear and programs are closed.
Towards the end of the permit period should the three program companies be coordinated and preferably merged. But it is unclear whether they will be allowed to keep the savings that a reorganization could bring. SD’s line is that the public service fee of around SEK 1,200 a year that all citizens pay should be lowered.
There are more writings in the investigation that are clearly taken from SD’s list of demands.
It is about public service taking into account the lack of trust that exists among citizens who vote for SD and M. This minority group with low trust in public service has low trust in many social institutions. How the public service will take into account the mistrust of that particular minority in its offer remains to be seen when the investigation’s writings become public.
When it comes to the so-called mirroring mission, the changes are radical. The orientation to work for equality is deleted. Similarly, starting from the concept of “variation in the population”. It is replaced by the words “the entire population”. It is Swedish culture that must be put first. Requirements for service in national minority languages are also downplayed.
The investigation drives a astonishingly subjective analysis of the state of the commercially funded media industry, where the root of the pressured state is linked to the claim that the public service is too big and crowding out newspapers, radio and television companies. The role of the large international media conglomerates is underestimated.
Public Service must minimize its presence on external digital platforms such as Facebook, Tiktok and others. This despite the fact that an increasingly large part of the young audience in particular is found there.
The newspaper publishers (TU) have demanded a law that limits how many words SR and SVT may use in their offer on the web. It should be short news texts, preferably only a few hundred characters. TU has been heard by the investigation in its analysis that SVT’s web is causing the death of local newspapers. It is a poorly substantiated party submission, which admittedly did not result in legislation, but did result in harsh restrictive writings about taking TU’s criticism into account.
The review of SR, SVT and UR must be expanded. Special resources are set aside to carry out external analyzes of the companies’ efficiency.
The investigation proposal on the future public service will therefore only become public in a couple of weeks, but the information that I am telling you about already now comes from several sources with direct access to the investigation, and also from elected officials in the Riksdag who have taken part in the investigation. It can be assumed that the government’s communicative plan consists of selling its list of demands as well-established and with well-motivated changes. But the picture also includes the submission of a joint reservation from S, C, MP and V in almost ten points, as well as four special opinions. It is the first time that a public service investigation has led to such a sharp conflict between a government, in this case the Tidö parties, and the opposition.
The split became apparent a couple of weeks ago when the representatives of the Tidö parties disagreed with their coordination office and their party leaders. In the Tidö agreement, it is explicitly stated that so-called “cooperation projects”, including the issue of public service, must be run from wheat to wheat directly under the four party leaders and their coordination office, which has the task of formulating the assignment, coordinating the work, keeping continuously informed, approving the inquiry proposal and finally the bill.
This means that the government and the Ministry of Culture has to get in line. The information that has now come to light cannot be interpreted in any other way than that it is SD’s media policy that M adopted, KD loyally joined and also L, who for decades had a completely different attitude.
If nothing is done, the consequence will be a paradigm shift for the public service as well, where its independence, breadth and diversity are devalued.
In George Orwell’s “1984”, the use of language is an important instrument of power. War means peace. In Sweden’s 2024 and in the inquiry into a “solid and independent” public service, it means “dismantled and state-directed”.
Jan Scherman is current with the film “Make democracy great again”, about our threatened democracy. He was previously CEO of TV4 and is active in the association Oberoende Public Service.
