For the public service media, the relationship between news media and power-holders is guided by an arm’s length principle (Moe & Mjøs, 2013), which means that “neither politicians nor the Ministry of Culture are involved in the concrete subsidy allocation or act as arbiters of taste” (Kulturministeriet, 2012: pp. 3–4). Thus, the principle is thought to prevent the political level (the Ministry of Culture, the boards of DR, and TV 2) from interfering in editorial discussions and day-to-day practices. In recent years, the arm’s length principle has, however, occasionally been challenged by both board members of DR and politicians. They have also attacked specific journalists, programmes, or news coverage in very clear terms. Like the other Nordic countries, Denmark is in the process of shifting to a tax-based media licence system, which might put extra pressure on the arm’s length principle in the future.
With the exception of Berlingske Media, newspapers are foundation-owned and thus not owned by non-media companies or political parties. Most Danish newspapers have their historic origins in the party press system. Though formally independent, the degree of political parallelism in news content and audience patterns continues to be comparatively high. Boards of leading news media are in turn largely shielded from powerful business interests. A recent Danish elite study showed that media executives and editors, with very few exceptions, do not form part of Danish elite circles (Larsen et al., 2015).
For the media sector as a whole, the Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 found Denmark to be at low risk when it comes to political influence, as well as at low risk for commercial and ownership-related influence over media content (Willig & Blach-Ørsten, 2016).
