Aftonbladet
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta
Lars Johan Hierta
Lars Johan Hierta was a Swedish newspaper publisher, social critic, businessman and politician. He is best known as the founder of the newspaper Aftonbladet in 1830. Hierta was a leading agitator for political and social reform in Sweden during the 19th century...
in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation
Swedish Trade Union Confederation
The Swedish Trade Union Confederation , commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fifteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers...
(LO) and Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
media group Schibsted
Schibsted
Schibsted is a Norwegian media conglomerate with operations in 20 countries, the most important being Norway and Sweden. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange....
, and its editorial page describes it as an "independent social-democratic newspaper". In 2006 the paper had 1,425,000 daily readers (Orvesto research 2005:2), circa 15% of the Swedish population.
History
When it was first published in 1830 by Lars Johan Hierta, it was a tabloid that reported news and also criticised the new Swedish king Charles XIV John. The king stopped Aftonbladet from being printed and banned it. This was answered by starting the new newspaper "Det andra Aftonbladet" (The second Aftonbladet), which was subsequently banned, followed by new versions named in similar fashion until the newspaper had been renamed 26 times, after which it was allowed by the king.During its existence, Aftonbladet has leant in different political directions. Initially liberal, it drifted towards conservatism under Harald Sohlman, Editor in Chief from 1890 to 1921. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, a majority holding was sold to the German government in a secret arrangement.
In 1929 the newspaper came under the control of the Kreuger family, when a majority of the shares was bought by Swedish Match
Swedish Match
Swedish Match is a Swedish company based in Stockholm that makes snus, tobacco, cigars , Red Man Chewing Tobacco, dipping tobacco, matches and lighters. It was founded as Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget by Ivar Kreuger in 1917 in Jönköping...
, at that time the heart of Ivar Kreuger
Ivar Kreuger
Ivar Kreuger was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908 Kreuger co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB which specialized in new building techniques. By aggressive investments and innovative financial instruments he built a global match...
's corporate empire. Aftonbladet was labeled "neutral". In 1932 it backed Per Albin Hansson
Per Albin Hansson
Per Albin Hansson , was a Swedish politician, chairman of the Social Democrats from 1925 and two-time Prime Minister in four governments between 1932 and 1946, governing all that period save for a short-lived crisis in the summer of 1936, which he ended by forming a coalition government with his...
's new Social Democratic government. Just a few years later it realigned with the Liberal Party and turned to advocate liberal politics. Heavily influenced by pro-German staff members, the newspaper supported Germany during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The Kreuger era came to an end on 8 October 1956. Despite interest from both the Liberal Party
Liberal People's Party (Sweden)
The Liberal People's Party is a political party in Sweden. The party advocates social liberalism and is part of the governing centre-right coalition The Alliance, which achieved a majority in the general election of 17 September 2006...
and the Centre Party
Centre Party (Sweden)
The Centre Party is a centrist political party in Sweden. The party maintains close ties to rural Sweden and describes itself as "a green social liberal party". The ideology is sometimes called agrarian, but in a European context, the Centre Party can perhaps best be characterized as social...
, Torsten Kreuger sold Aftonbladet to the Swedish Trade Union Confederation
Swedish Trade Union Confederation
The Swedish Trade Union Confederation , commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fifteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers...
. The ownership change was first followed by a slight drop in circulation. In the 1960s, however, the newspaper saw its circulation surge rapidly, peaking at 507,000.
By the early 1990s Aftonbladet had run into economic problems, and many had begun to question the competence of the trade union movement as a media owner. On 2 May 1996, the Norwegian media group Schibsted
Schibsted
Schibsted is a Norwegian media conglomerate with operations in 20 countries, the most important being Norway and Sweden. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange....
acquired a 49.9 percent stake in the newspaper. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation kept the remaining 50.1 percent of its shares. The same year, its circulation passed that of long-time tabloid rival Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....
. As per 15 June 2009, Schibsted bought another 41% and is now the majority owner with 91%.
Internet publishing
Aftonbladet adopted InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
publishing early on. It has been published on the world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
since 25 August 1994, and the main news service is free. Since its inception, aftonbladet.se has consistently been rated as one of the five most visited Swedish websites in various surveys.
Criticism
The journalistic quality of Aftonbladet has sometimes been questioned. In late 2006, the newspaper's own journalist Peter Kadhammar directed criticism at the fact that his own paper appears to treat the love life of Swedish tabloid celebrity Linda RosingLinda Rosing
Linda Thelenius is a Swedish model, singer, author and politician...
as equally important to the war in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
The Swedish film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
claimed that Aftonbladet was the main media force behind echoing his alleged financial misdeeds, which finally led to Bergman's self-imposed exile to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in the 1970s. In his memoir book Laterna Magica, Bergman called Aftonbladet a rubbish yellow paper which had deliberately aimed to tarnish his reputation.
Controversy surrounding coverage of Israel
In recent years, several critics has argued that content published in Aftonbladet often is overly critical towards Israel, sometimes to the extent of - or at least bordering to — antisemitism. Per AhlmarkPer Ahlmark
Per Axel Ahlmark is a Swedish writer and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal People's Party from 1975 to 1978, and Minister for Employment and Deputy Prime Minister in the Swedish government from 1976 to 1978...
, former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
The Swedish constitution allows the Prime Minister to appoint one of the Ministers in the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister , in case the Prime Minister for some reason is prevented from performing his or her duties...
and founder of the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism
Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism
The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism is a Sweden-based non-profit organization, founded in 1983, that works to counteract and spread knowledge about antisemitism. The organization claims political and religious independence.-History:...
, writes in his 2004 book Det är demokratin, dumbom! ("It's the Democracy, Stupid!"): "Aftonbladet is of course worst among the big newspapers when it comes to both playing on antisemitic strings and then denying that they have done so".
2009 Aftonbladet-Israel controversy
In August 2009, Aftonbladet ran an article alleging that in 1992 the Israeli Defense Force took organs from Palestinians who died in Israeli custody. The article caused a diplomatic row between Israel and Sweden.Jonathan Leman (a member of the editorial board of the Swedish anti-racist magazine Expo
Expo (magazine)
Expo is a Swedish anti-racist magazine, started in 1995 and issued by the non-profit Expo Foundation . The magazine, issued four times a year, contains investigative journalism focused on nationalist, racist, anti-democratic, anti-semitic and far-right movements and organisations...
) and columnist Charlotte Wiberg wrote an article on Newsmill
Newsmill
Newsmill is a Swedish website for "news commentary and debate".Debate was opened to the public on September 3, 2008.. It was operated at that time by Peter Magnus Nilsson , Leo Lagercrantz and Karen Eder Ekman, who had previously worked at Expressen and Aftonbladet.Currently Ekman has been...
in August 2009 where they criticised what they described as "Aftonbladet's problematic attitude towards the Jews, both when it comes to purported criticism of Israel as well as in other contexts". In the article, they wrote: "Is Aftonbladet an antisemitic newspaper? No, but it seems that since the 1980s they [Aftonbladet] sometimes appear both blind and deaf in front of the expressions of antisemitism, which sometimes makes the newspaper "skid" [Swedish: slirar] in a way that few other newspapers do. The publishing of Boström's article [see the section below] unfortunately don't appears to be an accident at work, but rather seems to be in line of a larger pattern". Leman and Wiberg noted an instance in the 1982 Lebanon War where the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
was portrayed as a Jewish Angel of Death, followed by the caption: "And on that night I want to cross the land of the Palestinians and beat all first-born of both humans and creatures and perform my punishment on all of the Palestinans' Gods, I the lord". Leman and Wiberg also noted instances in 2002 and 2006 where the paper used religious themes to criticize Israel.