Media

To ensure the public’s access to information and mitigate the negative economic impact on news media as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government, in cooperation with the Centre Party and the Liberal Party, will provide an additional SEK 500 million in support to general news media in 2020.

Stockholm, Sweden 2020-04-22. Check against delivery.

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the undersigned chairs and members of the Groups of Friends on the Safety/Protection of Journalists are calling on all states to protect journalists’ and media workers’ safety, safeguard a free and independent media and ensure unhindered access to information, both online and offline.

Media throughout the country have been dramatically affected by the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Government, the Centre Party and the Liberal Party therefore propose that media support be strengthened. The Government also announced a proposal on altered advertising regulations for TV broadcasts.

In the Budget Bill for 2020, the Government, together with the Liberal Party and Centre Party, puts forward several proposals to strengthen democracy, culture and sports throughout Sweden. Here you can learn more about some of the proposals within the Ministry of Culture’s budget areas.

To improve the conditions for news coverage and local journalism throughout the country, the Government proposes that media subsidies are increased by a total of SEK 140 million, including previously announced increases. Moreover, an increase of SEK 30 million is proposed for the current year.

On Thursday 15 August, some 80 volunteers from more than 30 countries are invited to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to celebrate the impact made by the MFA’s and Wikimedia Sweden’s international initiative, WikiGap. The initiative has gained a foothold in more than 60 countries and has so far resulted in 32 000 new or edited articles about women on Wikipedia. These articles have now been viewed more than 100 million times.

Amanda Lind, Minister for Culture and Democracy, with responsibility for sport, talks about her areas of responsibility and her role as minister.

The Riksdag has decided that the current radio and television licence fee, which is paid by all households that have a television, will be replaced by an individual public service fee. The fee will be collected via the tax system. The fees will be administered in a closed system that is handled separately from other funds in the central government budget.

The Government has presented a bill on media support to the Riksdag. The bill proposes introducing a supplementary new media support scheme while preserving the existing press subsidy scheme.