Foreign correspondents on location from around the world

Europe is big

Speaking of the election to the EU Parliament, our coverage of it can possibly serve as an answer in a media debate that tends to flare up from time to time and which claims that Swedish newsrooms do not cover the EU ambitiously enough. Swedish Radio has a phenomenally skilled and valued correspondent in Brussels, but what this debate tends to miss is a rather obvious fact: the EU is not just Brussels. In addition to our correspondent in Brussels, Swedish Radio has six more dedicated European correspondents, of which two are resident in the Union’s most important capitals; Berlin and Paris and puts what happens there in context to, among other things, the EU’s development. To this can also be added our Stockholm-based foreign affairs staff, who regularly report from Europe and the EU on, for example, disinformation and influence, security policy and the lives and perspectives of young citizens. Every week, the eminent Europepodcast also goes in depth and twists and turns what is happening in the Union and in Europe. I am certainly bias to the case, but I dare say that we have an extremely strong and in-depth surveillance of the entire EU.

USA, always this USA

Swedish Radio will certainly offer full and in-depth coverage of the presidential election in the USA. It is an important thing to do and is motivated by both the US’s international importance and our audience’s great interest in the country. Our USA podcast, for example, is repeatedly in the top ten among Sweden’s largest podcasts. Starting already in September, we will also publish an extra episode of the podcast every week. Listeners will be able to take part in this only in Swedish Radio’s own app, so if you haven’t done so please make sure to download it, why not already today?

But as I said, that is not the only thing we are covering this autumn, many other issues, several other elections, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the continued conflict in the Middle East will of course be major focus issues.

In the Middle East, like the vast majority of international media since the conflict broke out in October, we have not been able to enter Gaza to see and document the consequences of the war with our own eyes. This is serious and deeply worrying and our CEO Cilla Benkö recently signed an international appeal with a demand to the government of Israel that international journalists should be allowed into Gaza.

Increasingly challenging to report

This touches on an important issue for us; our employees’ safety and the opportunity to work freely. Unfortunately, we see signs that it is continuously becoming more difficult to enter certain countries or areas to report. We cannot currently have staff in a Russia where the authorities systematically prevent free reporting from the country. Similar challenges exist around Iran, Eritrea, Sudan and North Korea. Even in countries that are largely free from more difficult conflicts and in some cases also describe themselves as fully functioning democracies, we see that challenges to conducting free and independent journalism are growing. Earlier this year, we discussed these questions in connection with a breakfast seminar on foreign affairs reporting in memory of Nils Horner, our colleague who was murdered in Kabul ten years ago. A murder that is still unsolved.

Feel free to come and discuss our foreign affairs reporting with us during August and September when we visit eleven cities around Sweden to meet your listeners. We started this week in Stockholm at the Kulturhuset/stadsteatern with a full program.

Welcome!