After the state television was revealed to have used an AI-generated video clip, combined with previous revelations that, like the model BBC, they manipulated a speech by US President Donald Trump, the Sweden Democrats wanted to call SVT executives to the cultural committee to explain themselves. However, it will not happen.
It was in a segment about the US immigration authority ICE and its work to locate illegal immigrants that the SVT program Agenda used an AI-generated video clip. In the fake clip, taken from social media, a local police officer in New York scolds an ICE agent.
The clip was later removed, and Agenda’s responsible publisher Michael Kucera says it is ”unfortunate and a mistake”.
Previously, the state television has also been caught manipulating a speech by Donald Trump in the same style as the BBC, triggering a major scandal in the UK with several executives resigning and a debate about the alleged impartiality of public service.
The twists prompted the Sweden Democrats to propose calling SVT’s executives to the cultural committee to account for how they work to prevent such mistakes, but that will not happen.
”Disturbing debate”
– I think that if one opens up for such a possibility to call in a chief of a media house, we are on a dangerous path, says committee chairman Mats Berglund (MP) to TT.
According to Berglund, it is ”a quite disturbing debate that politics increasingly tries to discredit the media”.
READ ALSO: SD wants to call the SVT chief to parliament – after her husband received a trip to Switzerland
Alexander Christiansson, SD’s cultural policy spokesperson, argues that it is not about giving someone a reprimand or a dressing down but an opportunity to inform how they work on the issue.
Publishers respond to SD
Criticism has come from, among others, the Internet Foundation where Jannike Tillå, head of communication and public benefit, says that they expect established media to have better control over this.
From the Publishers, an interest organization for Swedish publishers, the Sweden Democrats’ proposal is condemned. This is done with reference to it being a violation of the content of the broadcast permit, which states that public service should be “characterized by independence and strong integrity and conducted independently in relation to both the state and various economic, political, and other interests and power spheres in society”.
– That a party tries to make a political process of journalistic content issues is deeply undemocratic, says Publishers’ chairman James Savage.
– It is a threat to the independence that is necessary for the credibility of Swedish journalism.
Furthermore, it is stated that Swedish media can and should be discussed and criticized, but then through the Review Board and the Press Ombudsman. It is also assumed that SD’s ”attempt to change current principles for the relationship between politics and media does not receive support from other parties and that the proposal to call SVT’s management to the cultural committee is rejected”.
READ ALSO: SVT did as BBC – video with Trump’s speech was manipulated