Apart from the previously mentioned debates at the Publicists’ Club, the national Press ombudsman, the Press Council and the government appointed committee to handle complaints about radio and television content, there are a number of venues for media scrutiny and debate. Almost every major news event that is covered by Swedish media contains a meta debate on how the coverage is framed and conducted. This is done in the national newspapers, magazines and among broadcasters as well as on the Web by news organizations, in the comments sections, by bloggers (often visible on the traditional media site as links to the article in question) and on special sites for debate and/or media scrutiny (for instance www.second-opinion.se – a site where professional journalists, readers/users and organizations/authorities are paid/ invited to criticize media coverage of processes/events).
The leading regular venue for critical reporting on the media for the past 35 years has been the Swedish public radio corporation, Sveriges Radio, which now airs two weekly media programmes and a lot of daily debates as well. Magazines and websites financed by different stakeholders like publishers, advertisers, journalists’ union and investigative journalists criticize and debate media matter. Private and state-financed institutes publish books on media performance based on investigative journalism and/ or academic research, and arrange public seminars/debates to discuss the findings.
