The first Press Council was established in 1916. It was restructured in 1969 when members of the public were included in the council, a national Press ombudsman was added and economic sanctions were introduced against erring newspaper organizations. The Press ombudsman facilitates complaints from the public and selects cases from the public to bring to the press council. Then the council decides whether or not the publication deserves the blame. Blamed newspapers with under 10,000 copies in circulation pay about € 1000 in a so-called administrative fees to the council, and newspapers with more than 10,000 copies pay about € 2500. The code of ethics includes referral to democratic values and rights of reply. The journalists’ union has a committee that – in theory, but rarely in practice – can sanction members for unethical behaviour. As previously noted, in the Swedish model sanctions are mainly aimed at the editor-in-chief, not the individual reporter.
The Press Council and the national Press ombudsman handle complaints regarding the newspaper organizations’ print material and online publications. Broadcasters are also committed to the code of ethics, but have their own ethical guidelines that are supervised by a committee of researchers and experts appointed by the government.
The Publicists’ Club, which is a member of the umbrella organization Pressens samarbetsnämnd, upholds a continuous function of self-criticism with regular paneldebates on critical media matters. Top editors at the morning paper Svenska Dagbladet and the tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen regularly write columns and blog about the motives for the journalism in their papers and enter into dialogues with critics.
The system is frequently under debate, but has hitherto shown its strength. The editor-in-chief of the regional daily Sundsvalls Tidning publishes a weekly column where current publication issues are discussed.
