The evening was mild, the spring sun a radiant magnet for outdoor life. Despite this, around fifty people chose to crowd indoors for Åsadalen’s third evening event. On the agenda: truths and lies in the time of an election campaign.

The evening’s main attraction came from Stockholm, with his latest book in tow. The content of “That’s Why the News Matters – Genuine Journalism in an Age of Lies” also framed the evening’s lecture by its author, Erik Fichtelius.

He is now retired from his roles as a reporter and programme director within public service broadcasting. Yet he remains a familiar face, both among the general public and political decision-makers. And he is still in the service of journalism.

Shameless contempt for facts
Fichtelius’s visit to Åsa was part of his crusade against fake news, deep fakes and “alternative facts”. His Powerpoint presentation overflowed with both serious and laughable examples of falsehoods. 

Some are orchestrated by foreign powers to sow division among citizens of other countries. Others are created by states themselves to cast suspicion on critics, political opponents and domestic protesters. Much of it carries a tone of hatred, threats and a shameless contempt for facts.

Erik Fichtelius highlighted two dangerous aspects of fake news: how widely it spreads and how easily digital technology and social media can influence people. 

“Not my responsibility”
– We will almost certainly see examples of this in the Swedish election campaign as well, he fears.

The most effective countermeasure, according to Fichtelius, is genuine journalism. He has previously elaborated on this in an interview with asadalen.se.

During his lecture, he placed great emphasis on explaining the nature of news journalism and how editorial media think and operate. He has sometimes been confronted with the distorted perception that journalists are “only out to cause harm”.

– My responsibility as a journalist is not to consider the consequences of reporting. My responsibility is to assess whether the news is true and relevant.

The importance of scrutiny
– It becomes a problem for society if we cannot agree that truth matters, commented Jonathan Törnstrand, a columnist for the NTM Media group.

He was one of the evening’s guests who took part in the subsequent panel discussion.

– What I take away from the lecture is the importance of carefully scrutinising what we read and see, because it is not always the truth. In my work, there is a great deal of text and news to go through, said Malin S Karlsson, an SD politician in Nyköping and political secretary in Region Sörmland.

Elinor Sundén is a political secretary and also the Left Party’s lead candidate in the regional elections. She emphasised the influence of news, for example depending on how it is presented.

Shaping perceptions
– I lived in the Basque Country in the 1990s. The news we received there about the Basque independence struggle compared with what my mother in Sweden was told was very different. The information you receive shapes your perceptions of society and the wider world. 

The theme of the panel discussion was truths and lies during election campaigns. However, it came to cover much more: the importance of media independence, the ban on political advertising on social media, and the impact of AI on fake news.

Poyan Sandnell from the party Katrineholm Framåt attracted considerable attention when, as a member of the Moderate Party, he created a dystopian propaganda film against local wind power. He has also used AI to spark debate about the cost of a public artwork made from an uprooted tree.

Questionable selection
– I wanted to understand how the algorithms worked, so I tested them with this stump. It went completely bananas. But I took responsibility. I first checked what the municipality had paid for the stump.

Such political influence can be created and spread by anyone. Editorial media, however, hold the power to decide who gets to speak in their channels and under what conditions. The risk is that this leads to a selection process that is questionable from a democratic perspective. 

Malin S Karlsson stated that her local newspaper had, for many years, prevented the Sweden Democrats from advertising. Elinor Sundén claimed that Swedish Radio Sörmland, during the previous election campaign, gave smaller parties less debate time than larger ones. This caused the former Ekot editor-in-chief Fichtelius to raise his eyebrows.

– I would recommend that this be reported to the Broadcasting Commission.

Text and photo: Henrik Wising