Danish Cabinet Minister in new Attack on Journalists
The former CEO of the public broadcaster DR TV Christian Nissen has written a book in which he describes how the Danish government put pressure on the institution. The minister of culture Brian Mikkelsen wrote an e-mail to the politically appointed chairman of the board of Trustees, Jorgen Kleener (member of the ruling party Venstre), saying:
Dear Jorgen,
Just for your information: The DR coverage of the government, and particularly the coverage of the Iraq war, was taken up at the meeting of ministers this morning, at first during breakfast by a large number of ministers, and then later during the informal meeting. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with DR's coverage of the war, which is very biased - ministers are particularly angry with a couple of female anchors and Ole Sippel (whom by many was considered extreme in his criticism of the Coalition). The Minister of Foreign Affairs even suggested that we should not privatise the semi-public TV2, which is fair in its coverage of the war, but rather the public broadcaster DR. .... March 25th 2003. Source: TV2
This is a new example of the cultural and value policies of the liberal conservative Danish government. This government was already in 2003, when the e-mail was written, becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to cut the Danish welfare state down to size. Instead it attempts a "liberal revolution" of Danish society by intimidating "leftist reporters" and other cultural personalities to get in line behind the conservative leaders.
Opposition parties are now demanding the dismissal or Brian Mikkelsen. But this is hardly what is going to happen. Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen would not dismiss a conservative minister at this point when the Conservatives are angry because of the limited influence they have in the government compared to the xenophobic national-chauvinistic Danish People's party, which is not even in government.
Dear Jorgen,
Just for your information: The DR coverage of the government, and particularly the coverage of the Iraq war, was taken up at the meeting of ministers this morning, at first during breakfast by a large number of ministers, and then later during the informal meeting. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with DR's coverage of the war, which is very biased - ministers are particularly angry with a couple of female anchors and Ole Sippel (whom by many was considered extreme in his criticism of the Coalition). The Minister of Foreign Affairs even suggested that we should not privatise the semi-public TV2, which is fair in its coverage of the war, but rather the public broadcaster DR. .... March 25th 2003. Source: TV2
This is a new example of the cultural and value policies of the liberal conservative Danish government. This government was already in 2003, when the e-mail was written, becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to cut the Danish welfare state down to size. Instead it attempts a "liberal revolution" of Danish society by intimidating "leftist reporters" and other cultural personalities to get in line behind the conservative leaders.
Opposition parties are now demanding the dismissal or Brian Mikkelsen. But this is hardly what is going to happen. Danish Premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen would not dismiss a conservative minister at this point when the Conservatives are angry because of the limited influence they have in the government compared to the xenophobic national-chauvinistic Danish People's party, which is not even in government.
Labels: DR
posted by Cosmic Duck at 7:28 AM
2 Comments:
Christian Nissen has also said that opposition parties - when in power - had the same tendencies to try to influence public broadcasting.
It is naive to thing that politicans - of any ideology - have the selfcontrol not to try to tamper with the public funded stations.
And when it comes to attacking the press your violent youth house friend are much more explicit in their ways when they bombard journalist's with rocks, and flammable fluids.
"naive to think"
Post a Comment
<< Home