Rixstep
	`About \| ACP \| Buy \| Industry Watch \| Learning Curve \| News \| Products \| Search \| Substack`

Home » Industry Watch

Swedish Journos Hide Tails Twixt Legs

But nothing to worry about, say the Flashbackers.

Get It

Try It

DUCKPOND (Rixstep) — Following on the 22 July statement by the International Federation of Journalists in defence of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, the Swedish chapter as expected became the sole chapter to refuse to undersign. The motivation? The wording of the IFJ statement, otherwise universally embraced, could be interpreted to offer too much support to Assange.

This follows on the licked heels of similar actions by Swedish Amnesty and Sweden's Pirate Party.

In the latter case, the individual responsible admitted this was due to his personal association with Anna Ardin.

Global journalists' union supports WikiLeaks

Following is the full statement of the International Federation of Journalists from 16 July.

Global journalists' union supports WikiLeaks

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries. The following motion was passed at the IFJ's World Congress meeting in Dublin last month:

Welcoming the work of WikiLeaks as part of the new breed of media organisation based on the public's right to know. The technological innovation that has underpinned the WikiLeaks model offers important opportunities for media organisations to expose information that governments and corporations would rather keep secret;

deploring the attacks on WikiLeaks by political figures including allegations of illegality, threats of extra-judicial action and reports of extradition against the organisation and its founder Julian Assange. We are concerned at the pressure placed on other organisations to cut off the support that is necessary for a new media organisation like WikiLeaks to survive;

equally deploring the treatment of Private Bradley Manning by the US authorities. No person acting in the public interest believed to be a source should be treated in the manner he has been treated;

supporting the action of our affiliate, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, on behalf of its member, Julian Assange;

Congress calls on the IFJ Executive Committee to campaign in support of WikiLeaks as an independent media organisation committed to the public's right to know, to resist the attacks on the organisation and its founder Julian Assange and to ensure fair treatment for Bradley Manning.

Considering the Swedish chapter may claim to know more about Assange in Sweden than their colleagues outside the ~~duckpond~~ country, it's important to point out that the exact opposite is true.

Flashback's supreme digger 'Duqu' has the following to say.

It was to be expected that the Swedish Journalist Federation (SJF) would try to attack Assange.

It's a bit of a problem for SJF that members of their gang hit the road for Malta and wrote home, in the great tradition of Göbbels, about the heroism of the Swedish air force in Libya, all their Afghanistan gigs with, inter alia, their 'helmet cams'. Others had a fun time on PSYOPS exercises with the gang in Enköping, and we must of course not forget the Swedish astro-turfing 'talk about it' which gave Swedish journalism a new stamp of quality, even the Bonniers gave them an award so as to bribe the idiots quickly out of the limelight, and then some of them got drunk in Gothenburg and jumped on stage and set a new world record in lowering the curtain (but I have the audio recording here).

This makes it harder to understand their campaign for Dawit Isaak which is rather worn out by now, another imprisoned journalist we feel sorry for, or maybe in his commuting between Sweden and Africa, he developed a bad habit of monitoring people in true EXPO style for the news outlet Setit, something regarded by other countries as espionage, and thereof the visit from the local forces who then jailed him, he's been given only one furlough in all these years. So that Assange isn't to be 'held' against WikiLeaks works about as well as Dawit Isaak representing Setit, that was the official reason, but SJF won't correct it, talk about revising history.

But you needn't fret. SJF don't have many good members remaining, most of them complain about the high membership fees and the fact that anyone today can buy press credentials from other players, SJF have mostly pissed into the wind these past 10 years instead of keeping with the times as the media have otherwise evolved, they surely got lots of 'Tetra Paks' with cheap red rotgut in Almedalen, as thanks for services dutifully rendered, from various lobbyists - even the commies can get them jobs in the lobbyist organisations.

If we want to talk about journalists, we should talk about Michael Hastings. What we have in Sweden is stuck at the amoeba stage of development.