It is not surprising that the new media policy winds blowing in Denmark raises the attention of our neighbours and create a concern for the Polish or even Hungarian state crept into the otherwise so well ordered Danish media system. The big savings is in the DR – the Danish equivalent to SR/SVT – has, according to an article in Berlingske been linked with right-wing extremism, and the newspaper quoted the left party leader Jonas Sjöstedt, who on his side has written (29/8): ”We have seen it in Hungary, Poland and Denmark. The first racists and right wing extremists usually do in power is to attack the freedom of culture and media independence.”
such A comparison is perhaps tempting to take to a Swedish domestic political debate, but luck is not fair. The media policy debate has been violent, and more unforgiving than in Sweden and the other nordic countries, but it is, after all, not the speech that Denmark had a right-wing majoritetsdiktatur or that the current ideals of public service media’s political independence has been out of the game.
it is all about drastic changes: a violent reduction of the DR’s budget by 20 per cent and a tighter control of the DR’s programme activities, and it will medielicensen be abolished and replaced with financing from taxes. It is the result of the alliance between a neo-liberal culture from the party, Liberal Alliance and the right-wing populist stödpartiet Dansk Folkeparti, which, incidentally, does not have much in common. They have first of all agreed to cut hard in the DR, even if they had different motives to it. The parent, the unity consisted in a perception of that the DR has become too large – a ”mediemastodont” – as with ”state aid” in the back distorts the media market and is out of step with the population’s desires and needs.
Dansk Folkepartis stance is reminiscent in its way of the u.s. a similar attack on the established media.
For Dansk Folkeparti is the DR.’s size especially difficult because they simply think that the DR does not adequately reflect the nationalkonservativa the ideology of the party stands for. DR. be considered seriously as the mouthpiece for the leftist and kulturradikal propaganda, despite the fact that there had never been other than a resolved claim with no basis in reality. Dansk Folkepartis stance is reminiscent in its way of the u.s. a similar attack on the established media, even if you are not in the US talking about ”lögnmedier” or ”fake news”, but is more cautious. Anyway, Dansk Folkeparti greatly helped to whip up a strong negative sentiment against the DR, and thus paved the way for the fierce attack against the institution that we have witnessed.
For the government, where the Liberal Alliance, has the motive to cut in the DR rather been an idea of that the DR has become so great that the department made life difficult for other media. While many of the latter, not least the daily newspapers, remained under the pressure of digitalization, the public service media fared better, so it’s not completely without reason, one is interested in how large the public media should be.
the Danish government and Dansk Folkeparti have agreed on the cuts and a tighter control of the DR.’s range. Photo: Anders Hansson
the commercial media, which are mixed in this debate. That they are happy to see their competitors decimated almost goes without saying, and, in particular, lobbyorganisationen Danish Media, where the newspapers are organized, has for a number of years stood at the forefront of a campaign against the DR. Even if the campaign is focused on the business and therefore do not have much with Dansk Folkepartis ideological hämndexpedition to do, so they lead clearly to the same direction: the DR.’s budget should be limited and the activities of the programme be shrunk to include only the information that no commercial media want to (or can) take on, and there will be a desire to have the DR basically shall be prohibited to publish on the web.
the Association of Danish Media claim that the papers falling circulations and profits have a direct correlation with the DR’s size and programpolitiska freedoms. You see, therefore, happy that the DR is reduced to a narrow channel for the curious topics that no one is really interested in, and expect, thereby, to the sales and profit of the paper and online magazines to rise at the same rate as the viewers and listeners are abandoning DR. This is a pure illusion does not seem to make significantly impression, as Danish Media is also engaged in an ideological battle that hides the actual illusion: that the papers and all the other commercial players, it may be the MTG, Discovery, Netflix, or Facebook) – represents the ”free media” that serve democracy, while the DR is a ”statsmedium” – do you understand – by their very existence the closest to combat it.
a new public service contract for the next five years and has announced what are the consequences of the savings will get. DR draws in half of their tv channels, three radio stations and about 380 services. It means that the DR will get more difficult to reach out to the viewers and the listeners goes without saying, but fortunately, the department has not seriously come to a halt in the ability to build out their presence online. It is a major bright spot, which, in return, made the strategists in the Danish Media disappointed.
Now the DR is no longer ”promote integration”, as it was called in the old contract, but to be more Danish and actively supporting the ”christian culture”.
The new public service contract underlines to DR’s programme activities will focus on culture and enlightenment, while entertainment and sports are being cut down. The Public service gets in the way narrower, perhaps even more elitärt, if the DR in general to live up to the letter and the spirit. Dansk Folkeparti has with great success put their stamp on the contract content. Now the DR is no longer ”promote integration”, as it was called in the old contract, but to be more Danish and actively supporting the ”christian culture”, so that you don’t see muslim eid celebrations broadcast in a tv.
The more extended and detailed public service contract is not formally against the DR’s independence, but shorten the arm length that should exist between the politicians and the DR. To ensure that the DR does in fact comply with the contract’s many requirements one has as a news included a follow-up in the middle of the contract period. It may seem innocent, but it helps to keep the DR in the shorter tygel. It is also involved in the transition from licensfinansiering to skattefinansiering, because it is, in principle, strengthens the political leverage against DR. If the politicians want to make use of, it is not easy to say, but the possibility is there, and thus it is posted to DR tempted to embark on a more cautious line. It will, perhaps, awaken the joy in some of the political camps, but it will hardly be to the benefit of listeners and viewers, and decidedly not for the society in the DR to serve.
managed to get through such a large part of their policies, astound, because, despite everything, it is a relatively extreme right wing populism that is only supported by a comparatively small minority of the population, and of the narrow economic interests. The explanation lies, in my opinion, in that the agitation against the DR, as the newspapers have a great responsibility in, has torn up deep rifts in the previously basic trust and respect between politicians and the DR. The most important thing is not the purely formal framework for the governance of the public media, without the basic, fundamental understanding and acceptance among politicians and their constituents for the public service the independence of the media, and that it is part of their role to say against the politicians and the power.
The understanding has probably always been subjected to trials, but with the growing polarisation in society and the political system that in recent years emerging right wing populism has brought with itself has the challenge been greater. The media (and media policy) has been made an integral part of the ideological and political battle. When the commercial media industry on top of it all get political support for the view that the public media represent a democratic problem, it is not surprising that the ground trembles under DR.
at the same time, it should be noted that DR. in spite of the cuts and the new finance reform is strong in the Danish media impression, and probably will continue to do so over the next few years. DR’s program is still popular among the population, and with the new strategy, DR has announced there is a place for the renewal of the changing media impression requires. Only when the audience fails to become the political pressure dangerous seriously, and it is not something to suggest for the moment. Spring is the election to the Folketing, and the change in the political majority can milder winds blow in across the DR – and perhaps mojnar it then something on the other side of the Öresund strait.
Read more: the First part of the DN’s series on the threat to public service, ”the Phenomenon is available all over Europe”, writes Cilla Benkö
Translation from Danish: Lars Linder.
