On Monday, Dagens Nyheter published an editorial about Anna Kinberg Batra with the headline “It’s not Anna Kinberg Batra’s note in the reception that is the biggest problem”.
They chose to put together a picture of Kinberg Batra and Sami Parliament chairman Daniel Lyngdorf Vinka – where Vinka was dressed in black.
“Repeats the joke”
The choice of image has attracted criticism in social media. One of several who reacted is Jon Petter Stoor, researcher at Umeå University.
– Joking and making puns with Lapp as Lapp or Sámi as Lapp is a very common joke that I think most Sámi have experienced, he says and continues:
– If you speak up, it’s like a letter in the mail saying how easily offended you are or that you can’t take a joke. It’s like repeating that joke but in a leadership position in DN.
DN: “A mistake”
The image comes from TT’s image archive. There are 4266 pictures of Kindberg Batra. Since the picture of her and Vinka was taken, there have been 91 more recent pictures of the governor.
But according to DN, the choice of image was an unfortunate coincidence. After readers contacted the newspaper, the picture has been replaced.
– It was a mistake. As soon as we received an email, we changed the image, says Amanda Sokolnicki, political editor at Dagens Nyheter.
She continues:
– There was no thought with the picture that was chosen other than that we wanted a different picture from those that were in the other places in the newspaper. We didn’t know who the man was sitting next to us, but when we realized the inappropriateness, we changed the picture. We were wrong!
Bigger perspective
Jon Petter Stoor thinks it is good that the image has changed, but thinks it is important to raise the issue in a larger perspective.
– It is good that you understand that it is problematic. But I think we would need to have a public conversation about how we use patch and how we relate to it. Sami people are more violated in society, our studies show that, he says.
