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Ethnic Minorities and their Media in SwedenAn Overview of the Media Landscape

and State Minority Media Policy1

LEONOR CAMAUËR

Department of Humanities, Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro leonor.camauer@hum.oru.se

In present-day Sweden, one person in twenty is aforeign citizen, one in ten was born outside thecountry and one in five has his or her background inother countries or cultures. As they go about theirlives, these minorities – be they exiles, labour forceimmigrants or members of a diaspora or an indig-enous population – uphold a simultaneous relation-ship to their present and former worlds, theirhomelands and places of current dwelling, and theirin-groups and out-groups. The media, both the ma-jority media and those that address these minoritiesas minorities, play a central role in this relationship.As media researcher Hamid Naficy (1999: 2) hasobserved, the media play a part that is both signifi-cant and signifying when it comes to creating, main-taining and even dissolving ethnic, national andpost-national identities.

Minority media is used here as an overall con-cept for designing the media produced by, addressedto, and/or of especial interest for, ethnic minorities.According to Georgiou (2002), the only trait sharedby these media is that they all address an audienceimagining itself as a specific community and sharinga specific ethnicity. Minority media are otherwisemarked by great diversity as they may be producedby commercial, community or public service actors,appear in the language of minorities, the language ofthe country of settlement, or a combination of both,be information-centred, entertainment-centred, or acombination of both, and have an output that re-lates to the country of origin, to the local, nationalor diasporic context, or to all of these.

Minority media constitutes an area that is quitepoorly researched in Sweden, especially when it

comes to their conditions of production and statusas objects of the state integration policy and cul-tural and media policies. This article constitutes afirst (and rough) attempt to make an inventory ofprint and broadcast minority media in Sweden andtheir conditions of production, including the way inwhich they are affected by state policies. However,given the scantiness of time and resources at mydisposal for its preparation, this mapping of (eth-nic) minority media should be seen only as a workin progress.

In focusing on the production of minority media,I do not mean to imply that minorities should onlybe concerned with these media as regards either pro-duction or consumption. Both majority and minor-ity media are vital components of (ethnic) minoritygroups’ communication environment. In democraticsocieties, it is vital that citizens who are also mem-bers of a minority have their needs met by bothkinds of media.

A fruitful way of theorising the relationshipbetween majority and minority media can be foundin the work of media researcher Charles Husband.He underlines that although it is necessary to havemedia operating within community languages andaddressing the concerns of ethnic communities,media apartheid cannot be condoned. This is be-cause a public sphere operating through parallel andexclusive communication systems cannot promotedialogue between fellow citizens. A truly permeableinterface between mainstream media and ethnic mi-nority media is therefore a basic requirement ofmultiethnic societies (Husband 1994: 2 & 15).

This interface between minority and majoritymedia could be realised in what Husband calls themultiethnic public sphere, which he defines as a pub-lic sphere that must reflect the currently existing eth-

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nic diversity in such a way as to facilitate the au-tonomous expression of ethnic identity of both mi-nority and majority groups, as well as of national mi-norities. Moreover, this sphere must provide for theexchange of information and cultural products acrossthese communities of identity. A central condition forthe construction of such a multiethnic public sphereis the right to communicate, a right whose realisationplaces demands on the state: on the one hand, that itwill abstain from arbitrarily interfering with individu-al’s communicative freedoms, and on the other, that itwill through its policies and actions ensure a materialinfrastructure of resources and institutions that willfacilitate the exercising of these freedoms (Husband2000: 207-10). Thus, the performance of states as re-gards these demands constitutes a measure of theirwillingness and ability to take public responsibilityfor the managing of ethnic diversity. This is why it isimportant and necessary to study the conditions ofproduction of both majority and minority media, in-cluding state media and integration policies and sys-tems of support.

The remainder of the article is structured as fol-lows: I begin with an account of the method andmaterials used in the preparation of this inventoryand continue with an overview of the minorities thatcurrently live in the country. After this, I trace abrief history of migration from the Swedish per-spective. I then enter the domain of policy, firstsketching the main features of government policy onthe treatment of immigrants and toward minoritiesfrom the 1960s to the early 1990s, then presentingthe integration policy launched in the late 1990s.After this I give an account of the salient features ofSwedish cultural policy and present in more detailthe main institutions and instruments of mediapolicy. This is followed by an inventory of minor-ity media and a rough description of their condi-tions of production. I then present some views ofthose directly involved in the production of minor-ity media, and my final comments.

Compiling the InventoryWhen compiling this inventory, my main workingmethod consisted of searching for and gatheringcatalogues and lists (e.g., of periodicals and commu-nity radio concession holders), programming sched-ules (e.g., those of the Swedish Television and theDTU7 channels), different organisations’ declara-tions of principles, and official documents fromgovernmental agencies. While many of the sourcesused were recent reports and documents, whichguaranteed that they were up to date, I had, for in-

stance, no possibility of checking whether all theperiodicals in the National Integration Office’s cata-logue were still appearing. In this context it is alsoimportant to underline that it is virtually impossi-ble to exactly assess the total amount of print andbroadcast media at any given point in time, as theminority media landscape is continuously changing,with periodicals and community radio programmesconstantly appearing and disappearing or becomingdormant. I therefore make no claim as to the com-pleteness of this inventory.

The inventory of minority print publications isbuilt mainly on the catalogue Invandrar- ochminoritetstidskrifter (Immigrant and Minority Peri-odicals), which at the time I was preparing my re-port for the project Minorities and their Media inthe EU: A Mapping (see Camauër 2002) was avail-able at the web site of the National Integration Of-fice.2 Other documents consulted include the list ofrecipients of grants to ”art periodicals” provided bythe Swedish Council for Cultural Affairs and the listof recipients of press subsidies provided by theSwedish Press Subsidies Council.

The inventory of minority radio programmesbuilds on a list of community radio (CR) conces-sion holders provided by RTVV (the Swedish Radioand Television Authority), and on informationavailable at the web site of the public service com-pany Sveriges Radio, SR (Swedish Radio).3 The listof CR concession holders specified the name of theprogrammes, associations and contact persons,without explicitly indicating the language of thebroadcasts. While in most of the cases the languagewas easy to deduce from the available data, I wasunable to place some 50 concession holders in anylanguage group, which led to their exclusion fromthis inventory.

To compile the inventory of television pro-grammes I used information available at the websites of the public service company Sveriges Tele-vision, SVT (Swedish Television), the public accesschannels Öppna Kanalen in Stockholm and Gothen-burg, the commercial channel DTU7, the televisionprogramme Miniatyr and the cable operator comhem kabel tv.4

Reports published by RTVV and several officialdocuments constituted valuable sources of informa-tion on broadcast media and government policy, andthe report of a conference organised by minoritymedia producers provided an insight on their analy-sis of their current situation.

To make the reading of this article easier forreaders outside Sweden, I have given the subsidyamounts in €.

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An Overview of Multicultural Sweden

Sweden had slightly below 8.9 million inhabitants asof 31 December 2000. One million of these, or 11.3%of the population, were foreign-born (Befolknings-statistik 2000, 2001). In comparison with other Euro-pean countries, the Swedish population has a highpercentage of foreign-born inhabitants (Integrations-politik för 2000-talet, 2002: 10). However, these fig-ures are insufficient to sketch the whole picture of acountry that is growing ever more multicultural: theyexclude a large number of people born and raised inthe country of settlement, people who may stillidentify with the their parents’ ethnic group. Statis-tics Sweden uses another category, people with for-

eign background, which comprises foreign-born per-sons and persons born in Sweden with one or bothparents born abroad, and therefore appears as moreadequate an instrument for mapping diasporic com-munities. The number of persons with foreign back-ground living in the country at the end of 2000amounted to 1.8 million, or 20.5% of the population(Befolkningsstatistik 2000, 2001).

The table below shows the distribution of theSwedish population with foreign background ac-cording to continent/region, and some of the coun-tries of origin.

The table shows that 14%, or more than two-thirds of the inhabitants with foreign background,come from European countries, while one-third

Table 1. Distribution of the Swedish Population with Foreign Background According to Continent/Region,and Some of the Countries of Origin

Continent/region/ Percentage of the totalcountry of origin Number of inhabitants population

Nordic countries 658.285 7.4

Denmark 95.883 1.1

Finland 447.450 5

Norway 112.340 1.3

European Union

(Excluding Denmark and Finland) 218.259 2.5

Germany 92.920 1

Great Britain and Ireland 29.724 0.3

Europe

(Excluding the Nordic and EU-countries) 364.559 4.1

Bosnia-Herzegovina 60.171 0.7

Estonia 26.012 0.3

Hungary 27.854 0.3

Poland 67.352 0.8

Yugoslavia 116.609 1.3

Africa 94.103 1.1

Ethiopia 19.093 0.2

Somalia 19.947 0.2

North America 51.162 0.6

USA 34.629 0.4

South America 77.345 0.9

Chile 41.662 0.5

Asia 371.594 4.2

Iran 67.864 0.8

Iraq 64.069 0.7

Lebanon 35.886 0.4

Turkey 60.026 0.7

Oceania 4.865 0.05

Note: The table is built on data from Befolkningsstatistik 2000 (2001).

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comes from other continents. Among the latter,Asia is the most strongly represented (4.2% of theSwedish population), while the population groupsoriginating from Africa, North America, SouthAmerica and Oceania are considerably smaller.

A large majority of the immigrant populationlives in the large urban areas of Stockholm, Gothen-burg and Malmö, and the number of women and mencomprised by this population is approximately thesame (Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 10 andRapport Integration 2001, 2001: 11). According to arecent report published by the National IntegrationOffice, the life situation of a large part of the immi-grant population is still characterised by low partici-pation in elections, segregated living, high unemploy-ment, dependency on public assistance and low in-come. However, there are some indications that theimmigrant population’s rate of participation in theworkforce has become higher in the past few years(Working Together for Diversity, undated: 8 and 15).

National MinoritiesAlthough the Sami constitute the only indigenousSwedish minority according to the UN definition,5

five groups are today regarded as “national minori-ties” for policy purposes: the Sami, Tornedal Finns,Swedish Finns, Roma/Gypsies and Jews.6 The Samipeople have inhabited the northern portions ofScandinavia, Finland and eastward over the RussianKola Peninsula since ancient times. Today, the Samipopulation of Sweden is estimated at 17,000-20,000and many have merged with the majority popula-tion (The Sami People in Sweden, 1999). Approxi-mately 25,000 Tornedal Finns today live in the val-ley of the Torne, the Muonio and the Könkämä riv-ers in northern Sweden.7 Swedish Finns are de-scribed as persons who live in Sweden, have Finn-ish as their mother tongue, were born in Sweden orFinland and, irrespective of their citizenship, iden-tify themselves with the Swedish Finnish ethnic mi-nority. As Swedish statistics do not register the lan-guage of individuals, it is difficult to assess the sizeof this minority group.8 While there is some proofthat Roma/Gypsy people lived in Sweden as earlyas in the 16th century, there is no evidence of a his-torical continuity. In 1999, the size of the group ofRoma/Gypsies living in Sweden was estimated at20,000-25,000.9 Finally, the number of Jews livingin Sweden was estimated at approximately 20,000in 1995.10 All these minority groups have formedorganisations and produce their own media.

A Brief History of Migration

Like other European countries, Sweden had someexchange of population with other countries in thepre-industrial period (see Daun, 1992; Lundh &Ohlsson, 1999/94 and Svanberg & Tydén 1992 foraccounts of early immigration to Sweden). How-ever, the significance of the immigration in the pe-riod from the Middle Ages to World War II shouldnot be overestimated: its volume was not high inquantitative terms (Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94:11).11 Since the mid-19th century, Sweden has hadtwo periods with totally different patterns of mi-gration. Whereas emigration outweighed immigra-tion until the 1930s, this pattern was reversed dur-ing the 1930s (Lundh & Ohlsson 1999/94: 11).

The emigration of Swedes to America during theperiod 1840-1930 constitutes the only populationmovement comparable to the large (past or present)migration streams of other countries. It has been es-timated that 1.2 million individuals, i.e. approxi-mately 23% of the Swedish population in 1900, leftthe country during that period (Daun, 1992: 8-9;Hultén, 2001: 276; Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94: 11).While the bulk of this stream went to the USA,some Swedes migrated to Canada and nearby coun-tries such as Denmark and Germany (Runblom,1990: 35). The emigration of this period saved Swe-den from the catastrophe of starvation in the 19th

century and simultaneously contributed to a popu-lation growth that enabled American economic suc-cess (Daun, 1992: 9).

The Swedish history of immigration in the 20th

century has been marked by a series of turns as re-gards the volume of migration and the government’sand public opinion’s attitudes toward immigrants.One of these turns occurred in the years around1930, when the volume of migration quickly shrank.One of the reasons for this was the government’s in-creasing unwillingness to receive refugees from otherEuropean countries. Above all, Sweden wanted tostop the European Jews who escaped from Germanyand other territories controlled by the Nazi regime. Anew turn in the government’s immigration policy oc-curred in the last phase of World War II when Swe-den, which until then had conducted what historianHarald Runblom (1990: 36) calls “an indulgentpolicy of neutrality” toward Germany, gave shelter tomany Jews from Denmark. Runblom interprets thisturn in government policy as a token of loyalty to thecountries that were about to win the world. Thestream of refugees received in Sweden between 1944

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and 1946 was considerably larger than the one at theend of the 1980s (Runblom, 1990: 35-36).

The willingness to support people from thesecountries must also be understood in the context ofthe nordism that had developed during the war. Inthe years after the war, the Swedish government’sefforts in creating a Nordic political and economicregion resulted in the development of the NordicCouncil as a body of co-operation. One result ofthis co-operation was the establishment of a com-mon Nordic labour market in 1954, which createdthe instrument that would regulate the part of theimmigration to Sweden that had been the largest af-ter the war, that from neighbouring countries. Thuswas also solved part of the country’s labour powerproblem (Runblom, 1990: 36).

In general terms, the immigration to Swedenfrom the end of the war to today has comprisedthree groups: labour force immigration from theNordic countries and other Western-Europeancountries, refugees from Eastern Europe and theThird World, and relatives of immigrants and refu-gees who had already been granted the right to stayin Sweden. In all, 2 million people migrated to Swe-den after World War II (Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94:11). On the other hand, 1.2 million emigrated duringthe same period, which results in an immigration netbalance of 800,000. Of the total of foreign-born per-sons living in Sweden today, one-third are labourforce immigrants, one-third refugees and one-thirdrelatives of the two former groups (Integrations-politik för 2000-talet, 2002: 9-10).

The government’s immigration policy was lib-eral between the end the war and 1967, and foreign-ers could arrive in the country as tourists, findwork and obtain a residence permit. In 1967 the im-migration policy became more restrictive in one re-spect: New regulations were introduced, establish-ing that non-Nordic citizens must have residenceand work permits before coming to Sweden andthat these permits would be granted only after con-sultation with the National Labour Market Board.Due to the weak economic development since themid-1970s, the new regulation made it considerablymore difficult for non-Nordic workers to obtainpermits. In another respect, however, the Swedishimmigration policy has become even more liberal:refugees have been excepted from this regulation(Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94: 11). Thus, the labourforce immigration from non-Nordic countries virtu-ally ceased in the early 1970s, while streams ofrefugees from different countries have continued toarrive in Sweden.

The largest single national groups among the la-bour force immigration coming to Sweden betweenthe end of the war and 1970 include: Finns, Norwe-gians, Danes, former West-Germans, Austrians,Italians, former Yugoslavians, Greeks and Turks(Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 9; Lundh& Ohlsson, 1999/94: 30-32).

From the mid-1940s to the 1970s, most refugeeswere World War II refugees and dissidents from thecommunist block. The make-up of refugee immigra-tion changed considerably in the mid-1970s, though,when other wars and domestic conflicts brought toSweden refugees from countries such as Poland, Ru-mania, the former Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Uru-guay, El Salvador, Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia,Eritrea, Somalia, Turkey, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Leba-non and Syria.

The government’s immigration policy was clearlyconnected to the economic growth. In periods char-acterised by a high growth rate, such as the years be-fore 1914 and the period 1945-1970, the policy wasliberal, while low-growth phases, such as the inter-war period and the years between 1970 and 1998,were characterised by a restrictive policy (Lundh &Ohlsson, 1999/94: 13-14). A similar point is made byRunblom (1990: 36), who underlines the importantpart played by the needs of the industrial sector infuelling an active recruitment of labour force in othercountries at the end of the 1940s. This liberal policywas conducted in full agreement between the nationalauthorities and the enterprises, and immigration be-came a part of the Swedish labour market policy.

Several different areas can be distinguished in theSwedish policy for regulating immigration issues.The immigration policy comprises the principlesand rules for deciding who will be granted the rightto stay in the country. The policy on the treatmentof immigrants refers to the provisions aiming at fa-cilitating immigrants’ introduction to and integrationinto their new society. The asylum policy includesthe measures adopted to support persons who havebeen forced to flee from their country. The minoritypolicy comprises the steps aiming to make it possi-ble for minorities (those coming from other coun-tries as well as the indigenous ones) to keep theirlinguistic and cultural particularities (Lundh &Ohlsson, 1999/94: 54). Some aspects of the Swed-ish immigration policy have been touched upon inthis section. Next, I turn to the government’s policyon the treatment of immigrants and minority policy,and the replacement of the former in the late 1990sby the “integration policy”.

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From the Policy onthe Treatment of Immigrants andMinority Policy to Integration Policy

In the second half of the 20th century, Sweden insti-tuted a comprehensive policy on the treatment ofimmigrants and minority policy. According toLundh and Ohlsson (1999/94), Sweden lacked an ar-ticulate minority policy until the mid-1970s. Beforethis time, the policies toward ethnic minorities weredisparate and aimed at assimilating them into thedominant culture of the country. In the beginning ofthe 1960s, both the indigenous minorities and thegrowing immigrant minorities started demandingsupport for the preservation of their cultures. Acommission of inquiry was appointed in 1968 andpresented its report in 1974. The Canadian minor-ity legislation and the ideas of ethnic movements indifferent parts of the world influenced the report,which rejected assimilation policies and adopted acultural pluralistic approach. The report concludedthat the state should not force individuals to aban-don their language and culture, and emphasised thatthe interplay between the majority and minoritycultures would enrich society as a whole. This re-port gave Sweden its specific and rather unique mi-nority policy (Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94: 108ff).

The report proposed three overall goals for thestate’s minority policy: equality, freedom of choiceand co-operation. The equality goal implied that theimmigrant groups should have the same conditionsof life as did the majority, not merely with regard tomaterial standard but also with respect to their op-portunities to become integrated in society. More-over, immigrants and their children should have realpossibilities of maintaining their language, cultureand contact with their homeland. By freedom ofchoice it was meant that individual members of mi-nority groups should be able to decide themselvesthe extent to which they wanted to hold on to theirlinguistic and cultural identities. The co-operationgoal referred to the majority and minorities’ jointaction, which should be based on mutual toleranceand solidarity. The Parliament adopted these goalsin 1975 (Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94: 109). In thiscontext it is also worth noting that Sweden hasnever had a “guest worker policy”. Instead, all for-eign workers have been offered permanent status, ifthey wished to stay in the country. One of the mainreasons for this policy of permanent immigrationhas been the fact that Nordic labour immigration hasdominated (Hammar, 1992: 17).

Since the mid-1960s, a large number of reformshave been carried out to improve immigrants’ condi-

tions of life and participation in society. A large-scale programme of free Swedish language instruc-tion was started in 1965, a government subsidisednewspaper for immigrants began publication in1967, a bill providing for special tuition in Swedishand other subjects for immigrant school childrenwas adopted by Parliament in 1968, and a new gov-ernment agency, the Swedish Immigration Board(Statens Invandrarverk), was established in 1969. Anew law was passed, giving all aliens who have beenresident in Sweden for at least three years the rightto vote and run for office in local and regional elec-tions. This law came into effect with the 1976 elec-tion. Further, in 1986 laws against discriminationwere passed and an Ombudsman against EthnicDiscrimination appointed (Immigrants in Sweden,1999).

The changed political and economic situation ofthe 1990s and criticism of the policy on the treat-ment of immigrants led to the appointment of a newcommission of inquiry, which presented its reportin 1996. After this, a Government Bill entitled Sve-rige, framtiden och mångfalden – från invandrar-politik till integrationspolitik (Sweden, the Futureand Diversity – From the policy on the treatment ofimmigrants to the integration policy; my transla-tion) was sent to, and adopted by, Parliament. TheBill signalled a new orientation in the government’spolicy toward minorities and stated that the ethnicand cultural diversity of the country should be thestarting point of the state’s overall politics and itsrealisation in all areas and levels of society. Accord-ing to the Bill, the measures directed to immigrantsas a group should be confined to provisions solelyconcerning the immigrants’ first years in the coun-try, and their aim should be their integration(Sverige, framtiden och mångfalden…, 1997). Theaim of the new policy is to support individuals inorder that they may be able to support themselvesand participate in society, to safeguard basic demo-cratic values and work for equality between womenand men, and to prevent and counteract discrimina-tion and racism (Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet,2002: 6f).

In a recent official document it is argued that thepolicy on the treatment of immigrants adopted in1975 made immigrants as a group visible in societyand furthered an understanding of their needs, but atthe same time singled out immigrants as a homoge-neous group, and stressed their immigrant statusand thereby their otherness. The former policy onthe treatment of immigrants thus came to reinforce“us-and-them” feelings and contributed to the al-ienation that many immigrants and their children ex-

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perience today (Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet,2002: 7).

According to Lundh and Ohlsson, the reportfrom 1996 reflected the more liberal and market-ori-ented ideological climate of the decade, though with-out wholly breaking the main lines of the formerpolicy. While the three earlier goals (equality, free-dom of choice and co-operation) were maintained, thereport stressed immigrants’ own responsibility fortheir situation (Lundh and Ohlsson 1999/94: 120).The emphasis of the new policy on immigrants’ fi-nancial self-sufficiency and ability to support them-selves, seen as one of the standard measures of socialintegration, is thus not surprising in the context of thechanged ideological streams of the 1990s.

To move away from a view of immigrants as agroup, and to help implement more general meas-ures in the social policy field, the government es-tablished a new agency in 1998, the National Inte-gration Office (Integrationsverket), which has takenover the general responsibility for integration af-fairs from the Swedish Immigration Board (Immi-grants in Sweden, 1999).

Policies Affecting EthnicMinority MediaRegulations and provisions directly or indirectly af-fecting ethnic minorities and their media are chieflyfound in two broad areas of public responsibility:the sphere of integration and the sphere of cultureand the media.

The Sphere of IntegrationAs already noted, the policy on the treatment of im-migrants and the minority policy conducted untilthe mid-1990s comprised a series of provisionsaimed at immigrants as immigrants. According tothe analysis made in a recent official document, thispolicy resulted in an emphasis on the immigrantstatus and the otherness of ethnic minorities (Inte-grationspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 7). In contrast,the new policy adopted in the second half of the1990s emphasises integration. It is difficult to as-sess whether or not this policy shift is positive forethnic minorities.

On the one hand, it can be said that many for-mulations of the new integration policy evoke theo-retical gains from recent research in the areas of cul-tural theory, ethnicity and identity, and militateagainst essentialist conceptions of ethnic and cul-tural identity. On the other hand, the new integra-tion policy will have negative practical conse-

quences for specific ethnic communities. As a con-sequence of the adoption of this policy, a new sys-tem for regulating the state subsidies distributed bythe National Integration Office came into force in2001. The new system is clearly result-oriented andstipulates that the state give subsidies to organisa-tions built on ethnic grounds as well as to other or-ganisations. For both, a central condition for quali-fying for the subsidies is that their activities be ori-ented to achieving the goals of the new integrationpolicy. A recent official document discusses theway in which the new system of subsidies will af-fect organisations built on ethnic grounds, particu-larly those formed many years ago that organisepeople from countries from which there is no immi-gration today. The document notes that these or-ganisations have little reason to conduct integration-oriented work and that they instead prioritise ac-tivities aiming at maintaining their members’ cul-tural identity, language and bond to the homeland,e.g. the publication of newspapers or magazines.Thus, even though the new system of state subsi-dies still provides some support for this kind of ac-tivity, it will result in reduced allocations for these“old” organisations. For support for their “identitywork”, the latter organisations are expected to turnto other instruments of the general social and cul-tural policy, e.g. the provisions available to all vol-untary associations in the country (see Integra-tionspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 69-73).

The Sphere of Culture and the MediaThe new cultural policy goals sanctioned by Parlia-ment in 1996 are inspired by a “world culture-per-spective” and apply to all areas within the state, mu-nicipalities and counties (Integrationspolitik för2000-talet, 2002: 79). One of these goals is to “pro-mote international cultural exchange and meetingsbetween different cultures on the domestic front”(Swedish Cultural Policy: A Brief Review… 1997:13). In practice, the State, county councils and mu-nicipalities share the responsibility for public sup-port of cultural life. The central cultural institutionsand nationwide activities receive government funding.Parliament decides on the total volume of grants, andthe funds are then distributed by the Ministry ofCulture and public agencies within the culturalsphere. The four units of the Ministry of Culturedeal, respectively, with cultural heritage, art forms,the media, and co-ordination, development and fi-nances. The National Council for Cultural Affairs(Statens kulturråd) is the government agency thatbears the principal responsibility for national cultural

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policy (Swedish Cultural Policy 1998; Swedish Cul-tural Policy: A Brief Review… 1997: 42).

The goals and range of activities of national cul-tural institutions have been gradually extended duringthe past years, and in the directives for 2002 it isstated that their goal is on the one hand to promotesocial and gender equality, respect and tolerance, anda view of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious di-versity as positive forces, and on the other hand tocontribute to reducing discrimination and racism(Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 79).

Let us now turn to the specific domain of mediapolicy. The overall goal of the Swedish mediapolicy, as stated in the Budget Proposals for 2001/02, is to support the freedom of expression, diver-sity, and the independence and accessibility of themass media, and to counteract harmful content inthe mass media (Budgetpropositionen, Prop. 2001/02:1, p. 112). According to the Ministry of Cul-ture, there is neither any all-encompassing docu-ment describing the Swedish media policy nor anydocument describing the state overall policy on mi-nority media.12 Two official documents recognisethat the government lacks an overall view of themedia that address immigrants and minorities. In or-der to remedy this, the Press Subsidies Council wascommissioned in 2001 to map and analyse the situ-ation of the media chiefly directed to immigrantsand national minorities in Sweden (Budget-propositionen, Prop. 2001/02:1, p. 113; Integra-tionspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 82). The investiga-tion report was presented in the fall of 2002.13 Theinstruction of the commission did not comprise thepresentation of proposals for measures or changes.Among other things, the report concluded that:

• minority media play an important role in minori-ties’ well-being and integration,

• Sweden lacks a system of state support for ra-dio and TV in minority languages (emphasisadded),

• Sweden is now the only Nordic country thatlacks specific forms of support for minoritymedia production (emphasis added),

• immigrants are under-represented in schools ofjournalism,

• there is a lack of further education & training forminority media workers, and

• minority media needs increased support, notjust economic, but also as regards co-ordination,development and training (e.g., in the domain ofmarketing & advertising promotion).

Eight months after the presentation of the report,no specific follow-up or further policy preparationswere reported by the Ministry of Culture.14 How-ever, some indications have come from other quar-ters, concerning the launching of a new Commissionof Inquiry on the Press, where the results of thementioned report could be included in the discus-sions.

According to media scholars Stig Hadenius andLennart Weibull, the Swedish media policy is char-acterised by a combination of: a) state interventionin the structure and organisation of the media (e.g.,market regulations and support to newspapers inorder to safeguard the diversity of the daily news-paper market); b) steering through norms and rulesfor media content such as rules of impartiality andobjectivity for radio and television, and conditionsfor granting broadcasting concessions; and c) allow-ing the market to function as a steering instrument(Hadenius & Weibull 1999: 33f). One could thussay that the overall media policy combines elementsfrom the free-market and the social-responsibilityideologies.

Several public institutions are involved in themanagement of policies toward immigrants and mi-norities. In the following I briefly account for themain institutions and instruments of the policiesthat directly or indirectly concern the media pro-duced by and/or addressed to immigrants and mi-norities and shape their form and function.

Literature and Public LibrariesLiterature and libraries constitute an important cul-tural area from the point of view of ethnic minori-ties. The government supports the publication ofliterature in minority languages as well as the Print-on-demand project Podium, which further stimu-lates the publication of books in these languages.The system of publishing grants was modified in1999 in order to include new immigrant groups(Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet, 2002: 81). Al-though few of the ethnic communities exercise muchinfluence in Sweden, some are important interna-tionally: thanks to official support, Kurds workingin Sweden, for instance, have made the country amajor centre for Kurdish-language publishing(Swedish Cultural Policy: A Brief Review… 1997:39).

Responsibility for the approximately 1,600 pub-lic libraries rests with the municipalities, but thestate undertakes to support the nationally co-ordinated library system through grants. The gov-ernment subsidises, for instance, a central service

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for inter-library borrowing of books in minority lan-guages, which is available to all public libraries. Li-braries in municipalities with many inhabitants offoreign background have adapted their offer to theneeds of their users. According to a study from2000, foreign citizens constitute the group who vis-its libraries most often (Integrationspolitik för2000-talet, 2002: 81; Swedish Cultural Policy 1998;Swedish Cultural Policy: A Brief Review… 1997:39).

Newspapers and PeriodicalPublicationsThis section accounts for three main instruments ofthe policies affecting the newspapers and periodicalpublications directed to and/or produced by minori-ties: the press subsidies, the grants to “arts periodi-cals”, and the organisation subsidies distributed bythe National Integration Office.

The origin of the press subsidies is found in thegovernment’s concern for upholding diversity withinthe newspaper market. The number of newspapersdeclined sharply in Sweden during the post-war era,from 216 in 1945 to 162 in 1998. In order to coun-teract further concentration of ownership, the gov-ernment created a system of press subsidies, which ismanaged by the Swedish Press Subsidies Council(Hadenius & Weibull 1999). To qualify for the subsi-dies a newspaper should be issued at least once aweek and be distributed mainly in Sweden as well aswritten in Swedish. However, newspapers in otherlanguages are also entitled to the subsidies if they ad-dress linguistic minorities, have their main editorialoffice in Sweden, distribute at least 90% of the sub-scribed circulation in Sweden, and have a circulationof at least 2,000 copies (Statute of Annual Press Sub-sidies, SFS 1996: 1607, p. 1-3; Mass Media, 1999).

The Swedish Council for Cultural Affairs annu-ally allocates government grants to “arts periodi-cals”, by which is meant periodicals “whose maincontents are directed to the general public, provid-ing social information, or economic, social or cul-tural debate, or which mainly give space to analysisand presentation within the various areas of thearts” (www.kur.se 2002-05-31). Since 1999, theCouncil is commissioned to give special support toperiodicals in national minority languages.

The National Integration Office distributes thestate subsidies to organisations built on ethnicgrounds and other organisations working with inte-gration issues. Two of the allocations, the Organisa-tion Subsidy and the Activity Subsidy, are directedtoward ethnic minority associations. The first aims

at covering part of the organisations’ costs for ad-ministration, premises, IT support and informationspreading, whereas the second is intended to sup-port integration-oriented activities.15

To be sure, the subsidies mentioned above con-stitute only a part of the support that is, at least inprinciple, available and that can be sought by mi-nority media producers from a range of state, re-gional and municipal administrations, foundationsand cultural institutions. On the other hand, budgetcuts in the public sector during the past decade havemade it considerably more difficult to obtain fund-ing.

Broadcast MediaTo understand the state policy toward minoritybroadcast media it is necessary to bear in mind somerecent developments in Swedish media history. Radioand television have undergone considerable changessince the late 1980s. The former public monopoly onradio and television broadcasting is now giving wayto a new media landscape in which public servicecompanies operate side-by-side with commercial ra-dio and television channels and cable operators, com-munity radio stations and non-profit local televisionstations. The licences for broadcasting television andradio programmes are granted by the governmentthrough Radio- och TV-verket, RTVV (the Radio andTelevision Authority). The licensing conditions forthe five-year concession period starting in 2002 in-struct the public service corporations Sveriges Radio,SR (Swedish Radio) and Sveriges Television, SVT(Swedish Television) to continue and deepen their ef-forts to cater to the needs of national minorities andother linguistic and ethnic groups (Budgetproposi-tionen, Prop. 2001/02: 1, p. 113).16

RadioAt the end of the 1970s, voluntary associationswere allowed to broadcast within limited geographi-cal areas, which marked the start of Swedish com-munity radio (CR). Advertising was, however,banned from these broadcasts. After a test period, apermanent CR system was implemented in 1986,aimed at providing associations and organisationswith a channel of information. The programmesmust be locally produced, and the reach of the CRstations is limited to a range of five km from thesender, although wider ranges are allowed in somecases. CR programming is not subject to the rules ofobjectivity (Cultural Policy, 1998; Mass Media,1999; Hadenius & Weibull 1999: 176-9 & 264).When it comes to funding for the system, the CR

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concession holders were expected to bear the costsand no state subsidies were provided for the opera-tion of CR (Närradio… 2002: 17). On the otherhand, no fee must be paid for the concession today.

In 1993 it became possible to operate privatelyfinanced local radio, and, at the same time, advertis-ing and sponsorship of CR programmes was al-lowed (Swedish Cultural Policy, 1998). Despite theappearance of these two new actors, CR and localcommercial radio, the licence-financed public serviceSwedish Radio still plays a central role both in themedia system as a whole and as regards the produc-tion of programmes addressed to minorities.

TelevisionIt was the introduction of satellite-borne commer-cial television in the second half of the 1980s thatpaved the way for a profound change in the Swed-ish broadcasting system. The 1987 launching ofTV3, a Scandinavian satellite channel broadcastingfrom London, marked the introduction of commer-cial television in Sweden. After this, resistance tocommercially financed, terrestrial television broad-casting in Sweden collapsed. TV4, a commercial ter-restrial channel with nationwide coverage, waslaunched in 1992. The channel pays a concession feeto the state and is subject to certain public serviceobligations. The expansion of the cable network forthe distribution of television programmes sent viasatellite radically altered the Swedish media marketat the end of the 1980s. The legislation on cablebroadcasting that came into force in 1992 paved theway for the distribution of satellite transmissionsby cable; now, any individual is at liberty to trans-mit television programmes in this way. Cable trans-missions of this kind may be financed with adver-tising revenue and are subject to certain rules con-cerning content and volume of advertising. The ca-ble networks also distribute their own programmes.These are of two types, either mainly non-profitlocal television stations or commercial broadcastingcompanies (Cultural Policy, 1998; Mass Media,1999). According to the current legislation, each op-erator of a cable network reaching over 100 house-holds must put one channel at the disposal of a lo-cal, non-profit cable channel appointed by the Ra-dio and Television Authority. The appointed cablechannels distribute their programmes without pay-ing a fee to the cable operators. These channels,usually called community or public-access TV, areintended to function as a forum in which all citizensmay make their voice heard and to provide lesspowerful actors with access to the television me-dium (Bakgrundsmaterial… 2002: 5 & 8).

The Charter for Television Broadcasting Serv-ices in Sweden, in which the general policy of thepublic service corporation SVT is laid, instructsSVT to mirror the multicultural character of con-temporary Sweden as well as the cultural life ofother countries. The document also underlines theresponsibility of the company to take the needs oflinguistic and ethnic minorities into account, withparticular attention to the Sami, Finnish andTornedal-Finnish cultural spheres. The linguisticneeds of children in cultural and ethnic minoritycommunities are also to be taken into account bySVT.17

Minority Media in SwedenA Preliminary InventoryIn this section I present a summary of the inventoryof print and broadcast minority media produced inSweden in 2002.18 The most important findings arefirst summarized in Table 2 and then discussed inmore detail in the three subsections dealing with mi-nority press, minority radio and minority tele-vision, respectively.

Minority PressMy inventory of minority periodicals comprises181 titles in 37 minority languages, Swedish andEnglish. This figure is rather close to that given inother recent sources.19 Approximately 40 of thesepublications are in two or more languages, the mostcommon combination being Swedish and one minor-ity language (25 titles). In many cases, the reasonfor publishing in Swedish is that the associationswant their periodicals to be read by the majority so-ciety; they want to convey information about theircountries and continents in order to facilitate a two-way communication (Invandrar- och minoritets-media i Sverige… 2000: 52, 56-7 & 64).

The minority languages represented with themost titles are: Finnish (38), Arabic (16), Kurdish,Persian and Spanish (14 titles each), and Turkish andEstonian (7 titles each). Of the 57 titles published inSwedish, 27 combine this language with one or moreother languages, the most common being Arabic,English, Aramaic, Turkish and Spanish. The 30 titlesin Swedish alone comprise the publications by mi-nority groups wishing to reach a broader readershipand periodicals edited by majority society institu-tions and organisations that deal with issues of espe-cial interest for minority groups. Ten periodicals arein English, seven of which are in English and one ormore other languages. If one is to judge from the title

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of the periodicals and the affiliation of the editors,none seems to be the publication of an English-speaking minority. For this reason, English seems tobe used here as a sort of lingua franca.

When comparing the distribution of titles accord-ing to minority languages with the size of the ethnicminority groups living in the country, one can seethat in most cases there is a direct relation betweenthe size of the groups and the number of periodicals.There are, however, exceptions such as the Danish,German and Norwegian groups, which are rather large(1-1.3% of the total population) but have only one ortwo publications, and the Estonians, who constitute arelatively small group (0.3% of the total population)but have seven publications.

Unfortunately, the available data on the periodi-cals does not allow for an accurate assessment ofthe periodicity of the publications. The catalogue Iconsulted gave this kind of data for only 115, or ap-proximately 63%, of the 181 periodicals.

On the whole, it can be said that the minoritypress landscape is populated by many unpaid enthu-siasts who produce a great number of small, low pe-riodicity (4-6 issues per year) publications, which of-ten have financing problems. There are, however, fiveweeklies that address ethnic minorities, four of whichare published in minority languages: Eesti Päeväleth(Estonian), Liberación (Spanish), and RuotsinSuomalainen and Viikkoviesti (Finnish). The twoformer are small and struggle to keep their circulationabove the 2,000-copy limit (which is a condition forreceiving the press subsidy). The fifth newspaper,Nyhetstidningen Sesam, is published in Swedish and,in contrast to the former, does not address a specificminority but all immigrants and minorities living inSweden. According to its former editor this can beseen as a problem, but also as an advantage in that itwidens the scope of the readership and caters to theneeds of second-generation immigrants. Many child-ren of immigrants find it difficult to read in their par-ents’ mother tongue and want to read about theirown multicultural reality (Boldt 2001: 4 & 8).

The issue of funding is central to the survival ofthe periodicals and many of them cease publicationafter a few years due to lack of money. MiguelBenito, head of the documentation centre Immi-grantinstitutet, has made a cogent distinctionbetween three kinds of publications. According toBenito, some minority periodicals function as mem-ber bulletins and production costs are covered bymembers’ fees. Others, mainly Finnish publica-tions, are clearly local. There have been more than100 such periodicals, which were usually funded bymunicipalities, unions or the Social-Democratic

Party and managed to attract some local advertising.A third group comprises periodicals that are dis-tributed across the whole country. It is this third cat-egory that faces the most economic problems, asmany of these publications find it difficult to at-tract nationwide advertising (Invandrar- och mino-ritetsmedia I Sverige… 2000: 6 & 77-9).

In 2002 the “direct press subsidies” (i.e., the op-erational subsidy and the distribution subsidy) to-talled approximately 57.2 million €,20 approximately1.3 million € of which went to the five weeklies men-tioned above. Nyhetstidningen Sesam, which had13,000 subscribers, received 400,000 €, while the re-maining four were granted 222,000 € each.21 The indi-rect press subsidies consist of tax exemptions.

The appropriation for the grants to “arts peri-odicals” distributed by the Swedish Council forCultural Affairs amounted to about 2.3 million € in2001. In 2002, grants were allocated to 126 periodi-cals, of which a fifth, or 25 publications, were pro-duced in languages other than Swedish. Of the lat-ter, 23 addressed ethnic minorities (including five di-rected to national minorities), whereas two were ofa more general character (The Nordic Art Review andSwedish Book Review). The subsidy amountsgranted to most of the 23 publications amounted tobetween 2,700 and 5,500 €.22

As regards the funds distributed by the NationalIntegration Office, 45 associations received Organi-sation Subsidies for a total amount of approxi-mately 1.3 million € in 2002, whereas 32 organisa-tions were granted Activity Subsidies for a total ofapproximately 763,000 €.23 It is, however, impor-tant to bear in mind that the associations use the al-located funds for many different purposes and thatthe available data do not contain any indication asto what portion of the subsidies is actually used formedia production.

Minority RadioTwo main actors operate in the domain of minorityradio: Community Radio (CR), produced and sentby over 200 immigrant associations, and the publicservice broadcaster SR.

Immigrant associations have been and are, to-gether with religious and political organisations,among the most active CR broadcasters (Hadenius& Weibull 1999: 178 & 264; Närradion… 2002:72). The 228 immigrant associations holding a con-cession in 2001 constituted almost 20% of the totalof 1,169 CR broadcasters registered that year(Närradion… 2002: 23, 27 & 73). According to myinventory, ethnic groups broadcast programmes in

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Table 2. Overview of the Print and Broadcast Minority Media Produced in Sweden in 2002

Minority Periodicals

181 titles in minority languages, Swedish and English,of which 40 publications are available in two or more languages,of which 25 publications are available in one minority language and Swedish

Number of titles Language

38 Finnish16 Arabic14 each Kurdish

PersianSpanish

7 each EstonianTurkish

5 Polish4 Bosnian3 each Aramaic, Greek, Serbian and Serbo-Croatian2 each Bengali, Croatian, Danish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic and Romanian

1 each Baluchi, Bangla, Italian, Korean, Macedonian, Meänkieli, Norwegian, Portuguese,Romany chib, Russian, Sami, Slovenian, Somalian, Swedish-Finnish, Urdu, Urofarsiand Yiddish

57 Swedish27 of the 57 titles are in Swedish and one or more other languages, the mostcommonly appearing being Arabic, English, Aramaic, Turkish and Spanish

10 English7 of the 10 titles are in English and one or more other languages

Minority Radio

Community Radio Public Service217 immigrant associations had a concession in June 2002Data on the language of some 50 broadcasts were unavailable

Produces and/or relaysNumber of progr. Language Number of progr. Language programmes in

44 Persian 2 each Arabic Albanian Greek37 Spanish Aramaic Arabic Kurdish22 Kurdish Macedonian Aramaic Persian12 Finnish 1 each Croatian Bosnian Polish9 Bosnian English Croatian Portuguese7 Tigrinya Greek English Sami5 Swedish Somalian Farsi Serbian4 Azerbaijani Finnish Somalian3 each Amharic French Spanish

Portuguese German SwedishSerbian TurkishTurkish

17 minority languages, Swedish and English. Thelanguages in which most programmes are sent in-clude Persian (44), Spanish (37), Kurdish (22),Finnish (12), and Bosnian (9). As in the case of theminority periodicals, there seems to be a direct rela-tionship between the size of the ethnic groups andthe number of programmes, although one could ex-pect a larger number of programmes in Finnish.

Although CR is a relatively cheap broadcastingform, the costs for individual associations may beconsiderable, and financing constitutes a centralproblem for many of them, especially the minorones. Due to the limited geographical reach of thestations and the small audience size, advertising in-come is low and the associations are thrown upontheir own idealistic work (Hadenius & Weibull

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1999: 263-5). The associations’ financial resourcescome mainly from member fees. Subsidies grantedby municipalities and counties, advertising andsponsoring constitute, on the whole, minor sourcesof income. There are, however, great differencesbetween the associations broadcasting CR. In spiteof the difficult economic situation many organisa-tions face, the conclusion of the Radio and TV Au-thority is that state subsidies should not be imple-mented (Närradio… 2002: 8, 28 & 32).

Commercial local radio has not been a realisticalternative for many small and mid-sized associa-tions until recently as the concession fees, whichwere auctioned, could be rather high (between ap-proximately 2,900 and 370,000 € per year). Ac-cording to new regulations implemented in 2001, theconcessions for local commercial TV will no longerbe auctioned, but will instead be granted by the Ra-dio and TV Authority according to technologicaland financial criteria, forms of ownership, andamount of a given association’s own and locallyproduced broadcast output. The new concessionfees will amount to approximately 4,400 € per year(Budgetpropositionen, Prop. 2001/02: 1, p. 118;Närradio… 2002: 16). The goals of the new regula-tions are to support the freedom of expression andthe diversity of the output, and to promote a morelocally rooted local radio (Närradio… 2002: 79). Inthe middle range, the new regulations, together withthe expected expansion of digital broadcasting,

could result in a considerably changed structure ofpossibilities for the minority organisations. In thiscontext it is also worth noting that the less expen-sive web radio is increasingly being seen as a possi-ble solution to the economic problems of CR.24

As regards digitalisation, it is only the two pub-lic service companies SR and UR (Swedish Educa-tional Radio) that are currently involved in digitalbroadcasting. However, it is expected that radio willbe distributed over several different technologicalplatforms in the future, including DAB (Digital Au-dio Broadcasting), satellite radio and Internet/webradio. The latter is also growing as many radio sta-tions today supplement their ordinary broadcastswith Internet broadcasts (Närradion… 2002: 79).

Let us now turn to the second main actor in thedomain of minority radio, the public service broad-caster SR. The channel P6, Radio Sweden Interna-tional (which also broadcasts over the Stockholmregion under the name of Radio Stockholm Interna-tional), is presented in the company’s web site asthe international and multicultural channel of SR.The Immigrant Languages Unit (Minoritetspråks-redaktionen), which is a part of P6, is described asmulti-ethnic and multicultural and, while primarilyintended for immigrants in Sweden, also reaches anaudience abroad through webcasts. The Unit aims athelping immigrants and native Swedes understandeach other better and at informing newcomers ofwhat happens in Sweden and how this affects them.

Table 2. Cont.

Minority Television

Public Access Commercial Local Public ServiceBroadcasters Broadcasters Broadcaster

Öppna Kanalen i Göteborg DTU7 The Finnish UnitNo. of progr. Languages Languages Mediemagasinet1

2 Finnish Albanian The Mosaik Unit2

2 Persian Arabic1 Kurdish Bosnian The Sami Unit

PersianÖppna Kanalen i Stockholm PolishNo. of progr. Language Romanian

Serbian5 Somalian Swedish3 Tigrinya Turkish2 Spanish1 Arabic Commercial Producers

1 Kurdish ISB MovieProduction AB1 Persian (Miniatyr)

1. This programme scrutinises the media in general and often brings up issues such as the under-representation of minorities in the mainstream

media workforce and the representation of immigrants in mainstream media coverage.2. The unit was closed at the end of 2002.

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Programmes are in Albanian, Arabic, Aramaic, Farsi,Kurdish, Polish, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Somali,Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. P6 also relays,within Sweden, many foreign radio stations inDAB. This includes news and cultural programmesin English, French, German, Greek, Spanish, Turk-ish, Polish and Portuguese.25 Moreover, two specialunits within SR produce programmes in Sami andFinnish. The public service corporations of Finland,Norway and Sweden have initiated a joint projectthat aims at gathering all programmes in Sami underan all-Nordic digital audio channel.26

Minority TelevisionThree main actors can be distinguished within thedomain of minority television: the public accessbroadcasters, the commercial local broadcasters andcommercial producers, and the public service broad-casters.

The number of appointed public access broad-casters today amounts to 26; these usually reach thehouseholds of one municipality. They may besponsored, but are not allowed to broadcast adver-tising. Each public access channel functions as anumbrella organisation, under which a number of or-ganisations of different kinds operate. Ten of the 26public access channels have taken the name “ÖppnaKanalen” (Open Channel) and formed a nationalfederation of open channels. The open channels ad-vocate a radical media ideology and some of theirmembers are committed media activists.

To my knowledge, there is neither an overallmapping of the immigrant associations that aremembers of the public access channels nor an over-view of the languages of the broadcasts. However,in a recently published study it is stated that immi-grant associations operate most often in the publicaccess channels broadcasting in large urban areassuch as Stockholm and Gothenburg (Bakgrunds-material… 2002: 15). As an example it can be notedthat the open channels in these two towns, whichreach 340,000 and 211,000 households, respec-tively, broadcast in minority languages such asAmharic, Finnish, Kurdish, Persian, Somalian,Spanish and Tigrinya.27 Both channels are also ac-tively involved in work aiming at maintaining diver-sity and promoting integration.

Public access programmes in minority languagesdeal with both current Swedish issues and mattersof specific interest for each minority, and reach rela-tively high audience ratings within the respectivegroups (Bakgrundsmaterial… 2002: 15).

While most public access channels use digitaltechnology for the production of their programmes,the analogue technology dominates when it comesto their distribution, as the Swedish cable-TV net-work is still poorly digitalised. Most public accesschannels struggle with economic problems and can-not afford employees. Their sources of income arecomprised of member fees, broadcasting fees and, insome cases, sponsoring and compensation for com-missioned work. They are not entitled to state sub-sidies and have thus far found it difficult to obtainsubsidies from municipalities, counties and the Eu-ropean Union (Bakgrundsmaterial… 2002: 5, 18-22& 25-30).

Minority groups are considerably less involvedin commercial local television. However, in the pastfew years a number of commercial actors have be-gun producing and distributing programming in mi-nority languages. One of these is the DTU7 channel,launched in 2001. The channel has a licence to sendover the digital terrestrial TV-network and is fur-ther distributed by several cable operators, one ofwhich (com hem kabel tv) belongs to the major net-work operators. DTU7 reaches practically the en-tire country and airs news, sports and entertain-ment in seven minority languages (Albanian, Ara-bic, Bosnian, Persian, Polish, Romanian and Ser-bian). The channel rebroadcasts programming trans-mitted via satellite by television companies such asthe Arabic channel Al Jazeera, LBC (LebaneseBroadcasting Corporation) and the Iranian channelJaam-e-Jam. DTU7 also broadcasts Miniatyr, whichis characterised as a “multicultural programme ineasy Swedish” (DTU7 Channel, www.dtu7.com2002 03 08). The programme is produced by theproduction company ISB MovieProduction AB28

and is presented as a cultural magazine targeting anaudience of “foreigners living in Sweden as well asSwedes”. It contains current affairs, music, dance,theatre and items for children, and aims at “improv-ing understanding and building a bridge between for-eigners and the Swedish Society” (Miniatyr, http://home7.swipnet.se/ 2002 06 16).

In addition to the programmes in minority lan-guages gathered under the umbrella of DTU7, sev-eral cable-network operators rebroadcast program-ming from television companies from other coun-tries. In many cases this kind of output also func-tions as minority media. As an example, it can benoted that the cable operator com hem rebroadcastsprogrammes from DR1 (Denmark), NRK (Nor-way), TV Finland, ZDF (Germany), Polonia (Po-land), OPT (Russia), HRT1 (Croatia), Pink Plus

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(Serbia), Rai Uno (Italy), TVE (Spain), and TVChile.

The public service broadcaster SVT’s program-ming for cultural minorities totalled 321 hours (in-cluding repeats) in 2000 (Facts about SVT 2001,2001). Newscasts, magazine and children’s pro-grammes are regularly aired in Finnish and Sami, anda number of programmes in Meänkieli (Tornedal-Finnish) were sent in 2000 (Sveriges TelevisionsPublic service-uppföljning 2000, 2001: 67-8). Thecompany, however, produces no programmes in theother minority languages. The Mosaik Unit of SVT,which operated between 1987 and 2002, had the re-sponsibility for the programmes in Swedish aimingat representing the multicultural society. Its staffwas comprised of people with varying linguisticand cultural backgrounds. The division producedseveral programmes, one of which, Mosaik, con-tained debate, reportage and documentary and cov-ered a broad range of social, political and cultural is-sues from the perspective of integration. Two otherprogrammes produced by the Mosaik Unit (Gräns-löst and Cityfolk) were built on programme exchangewith other European television companies withinthe frame of the European Broadcasting Union,EBU (Sveriges Televisions Public service-uppfölj-ning 2000, 2001: 66-7).

In fall 2002, the management of SVT announcedthat the Finnish-speaking current affairs programmeEkg and Mosaik (both the programme and the Unit)would be closed. The Finnish Unit was to continueworking, albeit with reduced resources, while theMosaik Unit would be split. Staff members wereexhorted to “sell their ideas” to other units withinSVT. At the same time, a Mångkulturellt Centrum(Multicultural Centre) was launched by the manage-ment of SVT.29 The aim of this centre is to providesupport to other units within SVT in issues relatedto the multicultural society.

The two main public service channels SVT1 andSVT2 are transmitted in both the analogue and thedigital terrestrial networks, as well as digitally viasatellite.

The Views of Media Producersand ActivistsA number of minority media producers and activ-ists gathered at a conference in Malmö in 2000.Scholars, Members of Parliament and officials of theNational Integration Office, the Swedish Council forCultural Affairs, the Swedish Press subsidies Coun-cil, the Swedish Journalist Association, the Na-tional Institute for Working Life and other cultural

and media institutions also participated in theevent. The conference report (Invandrar- och mi-noritetsmedia i Sverige… 2000) provides a usefuloverview of the ways in which those directly invol-ved in the production of minority media see theirsituation and working conditions. Among thethemes most discussed at the conference were: 1)misrepresentation and under-representation of mi-norities and their countries of origin in Swedish ma-jority media content, 2) under-representation of mi-nority members in the Swedish mainstream mediaworkforce, and 3) criticism toward the current sys-tem of press subsidies.

1) According to periodical editors and scholars,the minority media have a many-fold function: asthey convey information on both the homeland andthe country of settlement, these media provide toolsfor identity reconstruction as well as integration.Several participants underlined that immigrants are“invisible” in mainstream media, whereas othersnoted that, when they appear, they do so as vic-tims or criminals. Moreover, even their countriesare “forgotten” in the majority media. For all thesereasons, immigrants cannot recognise themselves inthe mass media and live in a state of “informationdeficit”. Minority media producers stated thatthrough the production of their own media they at-tempt to provide the kind of information that helpsto qualify rough generalisations, by which they alsocontribute to spreading knowledge that can be usedin the struggle against prejudice and racism (Invand-rar- och minoritetsmedia i Sverige… 2000: 16, 18-9, 26, 48, 65 & 67). One could thus say that the mi-nority media fills a compensatory function.

2) A Swedish journalist characterised the Swedishmainstream media as “in practice ethnically cleansed”and populated by “white Anglo-Saxon protestants”,with exceptions such as the Minority Language Unitof the public service SR, of which many staff mem-bers are immigrants. Another speaker underlined thatthe journalists working in the major media lack closecontacts with immigrants, which has an influence onthe quality of the coverage (Invandrar- och mino-ritetsmedia i Sverige… 2000: 18, 23-4 & 42-3).

3) The current system of press subsidies wascriticised for not having followed the developmentof the press market, and several speakers concurredthat there is an urgent need for its reform in orderthat it better shield cultural diversity. The veryprinciple that the conditions for obtaining the sub-sidy apply equally to all was questioned. It was ar-gued, for instance, that the requirement of having acirculation of 2,000 copies in order to qualify forthe subsidy is unfair, as newspapers in Swedish

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have larger potential readerships than do those inminority languages. The requirement of publishingan issue per week was criticised on similar grounds(Invandrar- och minoritetsmedia i Sverige… 2000:20, 29, 74).

One of the results of the conference was the for-mation of Förbundet för invandrar- och minori-tetsmedia i Sverige, FIMMS (the Swedish Federationof Immigrant and Minority Media), the goal of whichis to further the interests of minority media in Swe-den, work for closer contacts with the Swedish insti-tutions, and increase the professional skills and rateof occupation among the immigrants working in themedia. Since the conference, FIMMS has called onmembers of government and cultural institutions offi-cials and, according to Boldt (2001: 8), played an im-portant role in prompting the government to com-mission the report on immigrant and minority mediain Sweden, which was completed in 2002.

Criticism of the current media policy has alsocome from quarters such as the National Federationof Open Channels, which in one issue of its bulletinPublic Access (2002: 5, p. 1) scrutinises the reporton CR (Närradion…), published in 2002 by theSwedish Radio and Television Authority, RTVV.According to the bulletin, RTVV cannot convinc-ingly explain its refusal to recommend to the gov-ernment the creation of a system of support for theCR. The article asks, for example, why the CRshould be exempted from public support whenpublic service broadcasting, newspapers and peri-odicals all receive state funding. This absence ofsupport is believed to especially affect groups suchas immigrants, who lack the economic resourcesneeded to form strong organisations.

ConclusionsThe most striking when examining the conditions ofproduction of minority media and the policies thataffect them is, on the one hand, the heavy relianceof these media on either the voluntary work ofmembers of minorities, state subsidies, or the ef-forts of the public service broadcasters SR and SVT,and, on the other hand, their low degree of commer-cialisation.

In the press, most periodicals are small and de-pend on idealistic work, and it is unclear whetherthe five newspapers that today receive the presssubsidy would be able to survive without it. Thisserves as an indication of what happens whengroups that in some respects are initially less pow-erful than many others are forced to compete “onequal conditions” with actors in the majority soci-

ety. Conditions are not equal when the startingpoints of the actors are so diverse.

The reliance on state support is a very problem-atic matter and, although I align myself with its de-fenders, and with an ideology of social responsibil-ity in general, I would like to argue that one shouldnot overlook the dangers involved in too heavy a re-liance on this support. In the 1970s, periodicals is-sued every second week were entitled to press sub-sidies for a short period of time. Today, the require-ment for qualifying for the subsidy is weekly publi-cation. This shows that subsidies come and go, asdo policy orientations, governments and periods ofprosperity, even in a society that, like Sweden, haslong enjoyed relative stability.

The scantiness of commercial, or, for that mat-ter, other kinds of initiatives may be due to a seriesof reasons. One is the size of the potential reader-ship or audience of a medium, which in turn relatesto the size of specific minority groups. For in-stance, few of the minorities living in Sweden sur-pass the number of 60,000. Another reason may bespecific policy regulations such as the limited reachof the CR stations (one municipality), which maydiscourage potential advertisers. A third reason isnaturally the structure and history of the Swedishbroadcasting system, which until two decades agowas dominated by public service companies. Afterall, new actors in the domain of radio and televisionhave been operating for only 15 to 20 years. It isprobable that the new digital technologies of pro-duction and distribution – together with the grow-ing awareness of many media activists that thework they do is necessary and good not only fortheir groups, but also for the multicultural societyas a whole, as well as their fair expectation of mak-ing a living from this work – will result in a mediasystem with fewer unpaid enthusiasts and morevariation of autonomous actors.

As regards the role and performance of the pub-lic service broadcasters SR and SVT, it can be saidthat there is a split between policy and practice. SRand SVT have participated in European projects(e.g., More Colour in the Media and More Diver-sity in the Media), which resulted in the formula-tion of a Cultural Diversity Policy and a DiversityRecruitment Policy.30 Media researcher ChristianChristensen (2001) has fruitfully theorised on thissplit, noting that although programming aimed atethnic minorities is regarded by the SVT producersand managers he interviewed as “typical publicservice”, the survival of such output has largelybeen the result of strict policies and regulationsrather than progressive ideologies.

8 5

The recent cutbacks in the Finnish Unit of SVTand the closing of the Mosaik Unit can be related towhat Christensen calls the schizophrenia of publicservice: minority and multicultural units and theirprogrammes are hailed as part and parcel of the veryraison d’être of public service, but are the mostlikely to suffer cutbacks were it not for regulationsand quotas.

Because of its connections to the state and itshistorical commitment (educating the people), pub-lic service broadcasting has played a central role inprocesses of nation-building. The question is, ac-cording to Christensen, how public service compa-nies, with their ties to processes of nation-buildingand the drawing of boundaries between “us” and“them”, can cope with rapid increases in ethnic mi-norities.

Nonetheless, however problematic this relation-ship between homogenising nation-building and anadequate coverage of the multicultural societywithin public service broadcasting may be, it is im-portant that we continue to demand that publicservice fulfil its responsibility in this regard. Thereason for this is, as Charles Husband has rightly ar-gued, that for ethnic minorities to be empoweredthey need both their autonomous, distinctive media

and participation in mainstream media (Husband1994: 2). It is through the latter that they can main-tain a dialogue with their fellow citizens withinother minorities and majority society.

Let us now turn to the domain of policy. Thisoverview shows that Sweden lacks specific forms ofsupport for minority media production. There is nosystem of state support for radio and TV in minor-ity languages, and the three main forms of statesupport available to minority periodicals that Imentioned in this text are not specifically designedfor minority media. Two of these forms, press sub-sidies and grants to arts periodicals, are aimed at allsorts of publications and, as noted above, there issomething problematic in the principle that the con-ditions for obtaining, the press subsidy applyequally to all. The third form of support, subsidiesfrom the National Integration Office, in turn, is notspecifically designed for minority media, but forminority organisations in general. One could thusconclude that although the general cultural policygoals stated in official documents are grand, the per-formance of the state as regards its willingness andability to take public responsibility for managingethnic diversity in the domain of the media is stillpoor.

Notes

1. This article is a revised and updated version of thereport “Mapping Minorities and Their Media: TheNational Context – Sweden”, which I preparedwithin the frame of the project Minorities andtheir Media in the EU: A Mapping, a larger Euro-pean project based at London School of Economics(Camauër 2002). The preparation of this reportwas made possible partly by a grant from theDepartment of Humanities at Örebro University. Iam also grateful to the media producers and go-vernment and institution officials who providedmaterials and shared information with me,particularly to Lise Blomqvist, author of the re-port on minority media in Sweden commissionedby the Press Subsidies Council.

2. Catalogue Invandrar- och minoritetstidskrifter,National Integration Office, www.integrationsverket.se/tidskriftera.html 2002 04 11. A few months afterthe completion of my inventory, the cataloguedisappeared from this site. This catalogue was in turnbuilt on a list of periodicals compiled by Immigrant-institutet, which is available at the site of the insti-tute, www.immi.se/tidskrifter.

3. The list of CR concession holders was provided byRTVV (the Swedish Radio and Television Autho-rity) official Tove De Vries and is dated 18 June2002. It contained data on 217 concession holders.The sources on SR comprise Swedish Radio Inter-national, www.sr.se/rs/red/ind_spa.html 2002 06 14;Sameradio www.sr.se/sameradio.index.htm 2002-06-14; and Sisu Radio (www.sr.se/sisuradio 2002-06-14.

4. Sveriges Television, www.svt.se 2002 06 14; ÖppnaKanalen i Stockholm, (www.openchannel.se/stockhom.verksam.htm 2002 06 14; Öppna Ka-nalen i Göteborg, www.openchannel.se/goteborg/starte2.htm 2002 06 14; DTU7, www.dtu7.com2002 03 08; Miniatyr http://home7.swipnet.se/2002 06 16; and com hem kabel tv, (www.comhem.com/ 2002 06 16.

5. “Etniska minoriteter”. In Nationalencyklopedin,www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=3208552002 06 14.

6. See, e.g., the Government’s Letter 2001/02: 129,Integrationspolitik för 2000-talet, p. 72.

7. “Tornedalsfinnar”. In Nationalencyklopedin,www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=3295932002 06 14.

8 6

8. “Sverigefinnar”. In Nationalencykolpedin, www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=320914 200206 14.

9. “Etniska minoriteter”. In Nationalencyklopedin,www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=3208552002 06 14 and “Romer”. In Nationalencyklo-pedin, www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=295043 2002 06 14.

10. “Judar”. In Nationalencyklopedin, www.ne.se/jsp/search/article.jsp?i_art_id=217665 2002 06 14.

11. In this context it is important to bear in mind thatthe exact extent of emigration from and immigra-tion to Sweden is known only from 1851 onwards(Lundh & Ohlsson, 1999/94:11).

12. Telephone communication with Ministry ofCulture official Åsa Finnström 2002 03 20.

13. The original title of the report is Minoriteternasmedier. Kartläggning och analys av situationenför medier som främst riktar sig till invandrareoch nationella minoriteter I Sverige (Minorities’Media. A mapping and analysis of the mediamainly addressing immigrants and nationalminorities in Sweden; my translation).

14. Telephone communication with Ministry ofCulture official Matilda Sommelius, 2003 06 05.

15. Riktlinjer för organisations- och verksamhetsbidragför år 2002 enligt förordningen SFS 2000: 216 (p.1-3), document provided by National IntegrationOffice official Jaklyn Bayru 2002 04 08.

16. These licensing conditions are built on the guide-lines approved by Parliament.

17. The Charter for Television Broadcasting Servicesin Sweden www.svt.se/hela/inenglish/charter.pdf2002 06 14.

18. The entire inventory is available in Camauër 2002.19. Boldt (2001:4) and Invandrar- och minoritets-

media i Sverige… (2000: 6) estimate the numberof minority publications at some 200.

20. These data come from the Swedish Press SubsidiesCouncil’s web site, www.presstodsnamnden.se 200206 02, where the amounts are given in Swedishkrona. The currency rate was 1 € = 9.15 krona2002 06 11. All amounts given in the followingare in accordance to this rate.

21. These data come from a list of granted presssubsidies for 2002 provided by Swedish PressSubsidies Council official Kurt Hedman 2002 0410. In 2002 Nyhetstidningen Sesam filed abankruptcy petition and was taken over by anothereditor. The press subsidy received by the weekly in2003 amounted to 222,000 €.

22. These data come from a list of recipients of subsidiesto “arts periodicals” for 2002, provided by Swe-dish Council for Cultural Affairs official MariaÅgren 2002 04 11.

23. These data come from a list of recipients ofOrganisation Subsidies and Activity Subsidies for2002, provided by National Integration Officeofficial Jaklyn Bayru 2002 04 08.

24. Telephone communication with Enrico Mancini,producer of the CR station Nueva Radio Interna-cional, 2002 06 19.

25. Radio Sweden International, www.sr.se/rs/red/ind_spa.html 2002 06 14.

26. Sameradio, www.sr.se/sameradio.index.htm 2002 0614.

27. Öppna Kanalen i Stockholm, www.openchannel.se/stockholm/verksam.htm and Öppna Kanalen iGöteborg, www.openchannel.se/goteborg/starte2.htm 2002 06 15.

28. The company is owned by three Iranian brothersand owns 20% of DTU7.

29. See Journalisten (the Swedish Journalists Union’speriodical), www.journalisten.nu/a.asp?article_id=4436 2003 06 08, and Mosaik, www.svt.se/mosaik/reportage.asp?S=2853&A=2853 2003 06 08.

30. For an account of these policies, see the Multicul-tural Skyscraper, www.multicultural.net/research_results.htm

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8 8

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