Here's a bizarre story from Sweden. Niclas Rislund, a reporter on one of the country's biggest tabloids, Expressen, impersonated a policeman while pursuing a story. When his subterfuge was discovered he was fired by the newspaper, charged and convicted. In the meantime, Rislund was employed by a media magazine, Dagens Media.
Yesterday news broke on the Dagens Media website that the court had refused Rislund leave to appeal against his conviction. But the reporter who wrote the story was none other than Rislund himself! Writing in the third person, he described himself as a "star reporter" and his copy, unsurprisingly, tended to portray his case sympathetically.
When this further example of subterfuge emerged, the Dagens Media editor, Rolf van den Brink, explained that the magazine was about to go to press and they needed to get the story written as quickly as possible. "Niclas was available. He was able to do the job quickly because he knew the issue." Well, he would, wouldn't he? He was the issue
Then, as the rest of the Swedish media rounded on him, the editor appeared to crack under the pressure and began to release an increasingly preposterous series of justifications, which have been translated by the Stockholm-based English-language website, The Local. Here they are:
"Naturally, we want to test whether we can do something like this and see what kind of reactions we get. That was, of course, part of it too."
"Our job as the sharpest magazine in the advertising and media sector is not to preserve ancient journalistic attitudes, it is to challenge them and dare to show new approaches."
"I stand behind the decision to publish. And it's good that it created a debate, even if I'm not sure it's such a good one."
"Most people seem to think we are idiots. I'm not sure I understand why. Would it have been better if somebody else at the magazine had written the article?"
That's quite enough explanations - ed. Finally, it would appear that Mr van den Brink has changed his mind again because it is now reported that the Dagens Media blog has been closed and two postings about the Rislund fiasco can no longer be accessed.
