Swedish Democrat party member of
Parliament Anna Hagwall has announced her resignation from all party
posts and will not stand for reelection in 2018 after a furor following
her exposure of the fact that a single family of Jews control the
Swedish media.
The uproar followed her letter to the Aftonbladet newspaper
in which she said that “ethnicity should be a factor” in determining
media ownership of more than 5 percent—an obvious reference to the
Jewish Bonnier family media group.
The Bonnier Group owns
96 book publishers, 42 business and trade press newspapers, 105 digital
news platforms, 9 film production companies, 176 magazines, 23 major
newspapers, 33 TV stations, and 33 “other” media outlets—and quite
literally dominates the controlled media in Sweden.
Hagwall had earlier submitted a motion
to the Swedish parliament which proposed cuts to the state subsidies
paid to media in Sweden.
Although she never mentioned Jews by name, Hagwall said in an explanatory letter to the Aftonbladet that
it would be a good idea to “let Bonnier’s newspapers go under” so that
“no family, ethnic group, or company” could control more than 5 percent
of the media.
“An entire 80 percent of the media is
owned and controlled by the same owners,” Hagwell wrote. “This is not
acceptable. Therefore, media ownership should be spread over many
independent companies and people. In order to change this, I suggest
backtracked press subsidies [for the independent media].”
When asked by Aftonbladet how
the abolition of press subsidies to the country’s local newspapers
reduce Bonnier’s power over the media in Sweden, Hagwall answered by
email that “most small newspapers are directly or indirectly controlled
by Bonnier, and why they have to be subsidized by the Swedish taxpayer
is a mystery.
“Let
the little Bonnier newspapers in the provinces go under, because then a
void will be created which can be filled by newspapers that care about
people and business owners.”
She also said that the Swedish public
service broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), should be switched to
pay channels to “reduce SVT’s propagation of the politically correct
agenda.”
The comments provoked a stream of
attacks upon Hagwall, and the Swedish Democrat leadership also distanced
itself from her, saying in a statement that the matter will “affect her
future in the party.”
This week, Hagwall resigned her position
as member of the Parliamentary Committee on Taxation and internal group
leader of the Sweden Democrats’ tax policy group. She also will not
seek reelection to Parliament in 2018 at the request of the party
leadership, and it is currently unclear if she will continue to sit in
parliament for the remainder of the current term.
No comments:
Post a Comment