## When journalists lose their foothold

## Swedish and Norwegian verification scandals in #MeToo-movement coverage

## SIGURD ALLERN

University of Oslo

## ESTER POLLACK

Stockholm University

## Abstract

The global #MeToo movement exposed the widespread structural problem of sexual harassment, which was also the case in Sweden and Norway. Across the various sectors of working life, women were able to identify with the call. This perspective, however, was undermined  in  the  public  sphere  when  person-centred  scandal  stories about a few powerholders and media celebrities took over. In addition, a lack of verifiable documentation - and uncritical use of anonymous sources - ignited renewed debates about the ethical standards of professional journalism. This article discusses two alleged #MeToo cases: Aftonbladet's dramatic  and  unfounded  accusations  against the theatre CEO Benny Fredriksson and VG's misuse and manipulation  of  a  'bar-dance'  episode  involving  the  Norwegian  Labour politician Trond Giske. Both media stories developed into 'critical incidents' , resulting in public criticism, self-examination and discussions around ethical rules and regulation.

## KEYWORDS

#MeToo, scandal, verification, media ethics, market-driven journalism

## Introduction

The international #MeToo movement, launched in the first weeks of  October  2017,  quickly  garnered  widespread  public  response  in Sweden and Norway. After sharing their stories in closed forums on social media, women from a wide range of occupational groups and work environments made their testimonies public in legacy media under  several  related  hashtags,  among  others  #silencerecording (actors  in  film,  theater  and  television),  #withwhatright  (lawyers/ jurists), #whenmusicissilenced (music branch) and #inthecorridorsofpower (politicians).

Allegations  of  sexual  misconduct  and  abuse  were  described  as men's  misuse  of  power  concerning  women  in  weaker  positions, often women who were younger and dependent. In addition, personal  experiences  were  linked  to  employers'  social  responsibility and the need for clearer norms against sexual harassment in society (Askanius & Hartley, 2019 a, b; Hansson et al., 2020; Lindqvist & Ganetz, 2020; Pollack 2019; Sletteland,  2018;  Sletteland  &  Orgeret, 2019, 2020).

This development led to a stream of news reports and commentaries in the news media, a coverage that also put journalism, characterised as 'a discipline of verification' (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007, p. 79), to a decisive test. While the numerous public testimonies in different industrial and cultural sectors generally practised anonymity concerning both victims and abusers and pointed to sexual harassment as a structural societal problem, individual charges against some named and well-known public figures played a central role in many of the reports prioritised by news media organisations. In several cases, a lack of verifiable documentation - and the use of anonymous sources - ignited renewed debates about the ethical standards of professional journalism.

In  Sweden,  the  widespread  'outing'  of  names  -  followed  by person-oriented scandal coverage and media hunts - resulted in a range of complaints to the Press Ombudsman (PO). Cases that the PO deemed to violate its rules were submitted to the Press Council

(PON) for review and decision-making. 1  Many of the accused in these stories were politicians, journalists, TV personalities, and persons in cultural institutions. In 22 #MeToo-related cases, the PON criticised the news media organisations responsible for violations of good editorial practice. According to the then PO, Ola Sigvardsson, a recurring theme in the critique was the publication of harassment claims targeting identified persons, despite weak evidence, often based on allegations from anonymous sources. These harassment claims led to unjustifiable reputational damage (Sigvardsson, 2018). 2

One of the most controversial media reports was a news story published  December 5, 2017, in Aftonbladet ,  the  news  outlet  with  the highest readership in Sweden. The CEO of Kulturhuset Stadsteatern (Stockholm House of Culture & City Theatre) in Stockholm, Benny Fredriksson, was on this front-page reportage, accused of being 'an erratic dictator who pushed forward an abortion, sexually harassed staff  and repeatedly let male actors commit abuse without action' (Kerpner, 2017). The severity of the accusations was underlined in two  editorial  commentaries.  Two  days  after  the  publication,  Fredriksson resigned from his position. Some months later, in March 2018, he took his own life. His death, which occurred before the PO and PON considered the complaint from his family about Aftonbladet's coverage of the case, sharpened the public debate about press ethics and publication practises.

In  Norway,  'naming  and  shaming'  was  less  common  in  legacy media  than  in  Sweden,  and  the  relatively  few  highlighted  cases in  2017/2018  concerned  politicians  (Sletteland,  2018).  Different political parties and organisations reported, however, that they had received several internal notifications of harassment charges, but few of the names were published. Only one #MeToo complaint - related to publications in three news media outlets - was appraised in 2018 by the Norwegian Press Complaints Commission ( Pressens Faglige Utvalg , PFU) (Jortveit, 2018). The three media organisations were all criticised for violating good press practices in their source work. 3

One main exception to this relatively careful publication practice of 'naming and shaming' was a comprehensive and intense media coverage of several party-internal harassment charges against Trond Giske, one of two deputy leaders of the Norwegian Labour Party, and a member of the Norwegian parliament, Stortinget . He was also the party's fiscal policy spokesperson and had previously held different ministerial positions in two Labour-led governments. Early in 2018, after weeks of media headlines about some charges, followed by discussions in the Labour Party's leadership, he resigned from his party leadership positions.

Approximately one year after his downfall, VG , Norway's marketleading  online  news  outlet,  presented  a  new  negative  story  about Giske's  behaviour  towards  women. The documentation was based on  a  six-second-long  mobile  video  recording  from  a  local  bar  in Oslo, which showed him smiling and dancing firmly behind a young woman.

However, this alleged '#MeToo story' was, as VG was eventually forced to admit, based on false premises. The #MeToo framing was misleading, made with the help of blurry video pictures and a constructed  'citation'  from  the  woman  captured  dancing  with  Giske. The new 'Giske scandal' was quickly turned around into a journalism scandal, leading to sharp public debates and critique, not least from journalists in other media outlets.

These two cases Aftonbladet's dramatic and unfounded accusations against Benny Fredriksson and VG's misuse and manipulation of the 'bar-dance' episode - both developed into 'critical incidents' (Tandoc et al., 2021), resulting in public criticism, self-examination, and discussions around ethical rules and regulation. Both cases were discussed by Torbjörn von Krogh (2020) in the context of the tools applied in the follow-up of serious ethical violations.

The news media organisations highlighted in the two cases, Aftonbladet and VG ,  have  several  features  in  common.  They are owned by the Schibsted Media Group, a listed company based in Norway. Through their history as printed newspapers, they have combined the traditional 'tabloid' priority of popular journalism (news, entertainment, and sport) with cultural pages, political commentary, and elements of investigative journalism. During the last decade, VG and Aftonbladet have both succeeded in establishing themselves as the leading online news media outlet in their respective countries. One difference  concerning  their  ideological  leanings,  however,  is  that while VG can be characterised as a liberal-conservative news outlet, Aftonbladet has a social-democratic profile in its editorial commentary and cultural pages.

This article aims to compare and analyse the two above-mentioned cases and use them to reflect on ethical dilemmas that regularly arise in the news media's coverage of #MeToo-related cases, especially in news stories based on 'naming and shaming' . A central ethical question is how journalists can avoid revelations that violate honesty, sincerity, and verification norms.

Media ethics may be interpreted as an effort to combine the market objectives and competition requirements of news organisations with the basic norms of journalism as an institution. This is an often contradictory and challenging task and can easily lead to conflicting goals concerning editorial priorities and moral values (Allern & Pollack, 2019; Bjerke, 2011; Harcup, 2020, 2007; Phillips et al., 2010; Zelizer, 2017). Nevertheless, the press organisations in Norway and Sweden have traditionally had a pro-active profile in debates about journalism and ethics and have insisted on the value of a self-regulating system independent of government intervention.

The article is organised as follows: First, we further detail the inherent conflicts between different types of journalistic aims, norms, and practices. Second, we take up the ethical norms of truthfulness and verification and discuss how they can be interpreted. Third, we analyse  and  discuss  the  two  selected  cases:  'Benny  Fredriksson's  lost honour'  tackles Aftonbladet's unverified  accusations,  and  'Trond Giske's scandalised  bar  dance'  examines VG's attempt  to  create  a political  scandal  involving  Trond  Giske  through  a  leaked  private video recording and manipulation of a citation. Fourth and finally, we conclude and discuss why news  media  from  time  to  time  lose their  foothold  and  overlook  ethical  rules  concerning  fairness  and accuracy. 4

## The dual nature of the news media

Our theoretical  point  of  departure  is  the  two-sided  character  of news media organisations. Like Janus - the Roman god of beginnings and ends - market-driven journalism has two faces pointing in opposite directions. On the one hand, they are patrons of journalism as an institution; they have ascribed a role as defenders of free speech and disseminators of fact-checked information, and they have an obligation to hold powerholders to account. But, on the other hand, they are competitors for audience attention on the news market and rep- resent rival media houses engaged in the production and dissemination of information and entertainment.

In  market  terms,  news  media  organisations  are enterprises that produce and disseminate news content and other media products including advertisements - to audiences. They include printed newspapers as well as online news outlets, television, and radio channels, and journalistic content encompasses different formats and genres. However, what sets the news media apart from other media organisations  -  such  as  film  companies,  subscription  video-on-demand services, book publishers, and entertainment channels in radio and television - are primarily their links to journalism as an institution.

In  institutional  terms,  journalism  represents  social  patterns  of behaviour spanning across organisations (Ryfe, 2006). These social patterns include genre rules, routines, and internalised norms concerning  information  gathering,  source  relations,  editorial  assessment, and publication. Such features, including ideas about professional,  ethical  norms,  have  developed  over  a  long  period  of  time, with expectations regarding the roles of journalists and editors.

In the second part of the last century, the development of press ethics  codes  in  the  Scandinavian  media  industry  and  higher  education for journalists contributed to creating common professional perceptions of news conventions and 'good journalistic practice' . It also drew boundaries against other types of communication, such as public relations and marketing. A vital institutional feature also deals with notions about journalism as beneficial to society, which tends to  be  couched  in  self-imposed  tasks  such  as  societal  information, stimulation of public debate, and critical scrutiny of those in power. The myth of journalism as a 'fourth estate' (or fourth branch of government)  has  long  been  important  for  the  legitimacy  of  the  news media branch and for journalism as an occupation and enterprise (Roppen & Allern, 2010; Raaum, 1999).

In line with this reasoning, Høyer (2005, p. 10) described 'the news paradigm' as  a  shared  understanding  of  news  values,  basic  genre rules, and tacit conventions about how news should be presented. Internationally,  theories  of  news  values  have  resulted  in  attempts at  creating  lists  of  the  most  important  news  factors. 5 However,  a significant limitation of such lists is a tendency to overlook the significance of audience orientation and market strategies concerning newsrooms'  specific  priorities  and  news  frames.  While  journalists in different media organisations may adhere to similar perceptions of general news values, their selection of stories and practical interpretations of newsworthiness may still vary. Moreover, international, national,  and  local  news  outlets  must  adapt  to  different  audience expectations (Allern, 2002). In other parts of the news market, exclusivity is also an important goal in the newsroom, an aim for individual journalists, and a means to achieve recognition from peers within the journalistic profession (Willig, 2011).

Therefore, editorial organisations may represent different journalistic cultures and styles of reporting, which might influence their specific interpretation of news values. As mentioned above, both Aftonbladet and VG are popular news outlets, representing the 'tabloid' tradition; crime, scandal, sports, and popular entertainment are an important part of the daily menu, but this is combined with reports and commentary about politics, current affairs, and culture. While all media - to some degree   - use personification in their news reporting, commercial popular journalism prioritises, to a greater degree than other news outlets, what can be personalised and dramatised. As Eide (1995, p. 44-45) summed up in an analysis of two popular Norwegian news outlets, 'It's all about people, experiences and feelings' . Concerning news priorities and narrative techniques, 'tabloid' newspapers (and their current online news sites) have usually represented a more dramatic (and melodramatic) type of storytelling than the informational model historically associated with the 'omnibus' newspaper tradition and news outlets catering for up-market niche audiences.

The  popular  press  has  traditionally  played  a  leading  role  in  the development  of  mediated  political  scandals,  especially  in  cases where personal morality is spotlighted. Political scandals are also prioritised because they provide journalists with opportunities to link commercial news priorities and questionable methods to a higher purpose:  criticising  powerholders'  norms  transgressions,  revealing  something  that  has  been  hidden,  and  legitimising  themselves as morally responsible mediators fulfilling an essential societal role (Allern & Pollack, 2012).

In a book on reflections about the legitimacy of journalism, Rasmussen (2004) pointed to a latent contradiction between ethical prudence and the professional ideals of being pressing and investigative. Ethical norms and professional standards are not synonymous. An illustrative Norwegian example is VG's admired and infamous frontpage story about a man who killed his wife. 6

The newsroom illustrated the case with a wedding picture of the couple. The picture was symbolically torn in two, and the headline was a well-known part of the traditional wedding vows: 'Till death do us part' . The front page was immediately regarded as skilled and effective professional journalism, both internally and in other Scandinavian newsrooms (Bjerke, 2005; Raaum, 1986, p. 123). However, many readers reacted differently and interpreted the front page as cynical and immoral. These reactions led to a spontaneous demonstration against VG outside the newspaper's premises. Commercial news values and shared moral values were on a collision course. As a result, VG's editors found it wise to apologize for the front page.

A  conflict  between  'good  journalism'  and  'good  media  ethics' also featured in the media coverage of a political scandal involving Tore Tønne, a former cabinet minister in Jens Stoltenberg's first government. The popular tabloid Dagbladet led the news race, starting on December 4, 2002. Following his departure from government in October 2001, he applied for and received three months' severance pay as a former minister. This scheme is intended as compensation if the person in question has no other job income during this period. Dagbladet showed that, in the same period, Tønne had worked for a large industrial company, later receiving a large 'success fee' for this task. He was, therefore, accused of abusing public support schemes. The case dominated the Norwegian news landscape for two weeks after that, with frequent critical articles and commentaries. Then, on December 21, it was announced that Tønne had taken his own life. The media hunt abruptly ended.

His suicide also led to intense public reactions against the press. Initially, the revelation about Tønne and his 'double pay' was generally considered an example of good investigative journalistic work. Inside the media branch, many reckoned that Dagbladet - the news leader in the case - stood out as a candidate for a journalistic award for its  coverage. However, the overall amount of  negative coverage was extensive, and in most articles, the accused was denied the benefit of the doubt.

The criticism levelled against the press was directed at what many readers  perceived  as  a  campaign-oriented  and  one-sided  media hunt. Influential politicians joined the chorus. In response to these public  reactions,  the  Norwegian  Press  Association  commissioned three academics to review the media's role in the case. Some months later, they delivered a thorough, reflective, and critical report. One of their general conclusions was that 'There must be limits to brutal, disrespectful and anti-human journalism, regardless of whether the person in question is guilty or not guilty' (Hjeltnes et al., 2003, p. 10). They also suggested that in sensational cases - when 'the heat is on' in the newsroom - there is a need for counter-perceptions, alternative views, and an internal critical voice, characterised as the need for 'a Devil's advocate, a cold brain inside the newsroom' (Hjeltnes et al., p. 83).

While  this  advice  is  sensible,  following  up  on  it  is  very  difficult since it requires both an assessment and a decision from each independent publisher. The news media have no common super-editorin-chief. Discussions around editorial priorities and resource use are also far beyond the mandate of the ethical councils of the Swedish and Norwegian news media branches.

## Media ethics and the difficult art of verification

As the British moral philosopher Bernard Williams (2002) summed up,  the  norm  of  truthfulness  is  of  great  importance  in  all  human and social conditions, a prerequisite for dialogue and cooperation. In particular, he emphasised two central virtues of truth: accuracy and sincerity. Accuracy is about correctness, ensuring that what is said or written is as precise as possible and not false or misleading, while sincerity is about being sure that what is expressed is meant honestly (p. 44). If we doubt the sender's honesty, his or her credibility is undermined. In a discussion about the importance of these two virtues for media ethics, Phillips et al. (2010, p. 54) added a third: the virtue of hospitality (Silverstone, 2007), taking into account the importance of how the news media affect the conditions for dialogue between cultures and peoples.

At the same time, it is necessary to note an important difference between  general  public  morality  and  media  ethics.  In  the  novel Immortality , Milan Kundera reminds the reader about a special journalistic  privilege:  'The  power  of  the  journalist  is  not  based  on  his right to ask but on his right to demand an answer ' (Kundera, 1991, p.

110). The ideological justification of this 'right' is based on the recognition of journalism as an independent institution with a societal mission. Press freedom, which in Sweden and Norway is based on constitutional rights, includes the possibility of publishing information that can damage the reputation of both individuals and organisations, i.e., a right to harm for the sake of the greater good.

However, this classic argument regarding the freedom and power of  the  press  is  sometimes  distorted  and  interpreted  as  a  possible defence for sensational storytelling. In the UK, it has regularly been used by representatives of the popular tabloid press as an argument for  their  notorious  working  methods  and  never-ending  range  of celebrity  scandals  of  widely  varying  public  interest  (Davies,  2014). According to Paul Dacre (2008), the long-serving editor of the rightwing Daily Mail ,  the  press  'has  the  freedom to identify those who have offended public standards of decency, the very standards its readers believe in, and hold the transgressors up to public condemnation' . An ethical problem with this pompous moral narrative is that it too easily confuses public interest with what interests the public. Moreover, ignoring the virtues of accuracy and sincerity in reporting undermines the transparency of journalistic work. The philosopher Onora O'Neill commented in the 2002 BBC Reith Lecture as follows:

If  powerful institutions are allowed to publish, circulate and promote material without indicating what is known and what is rumour, what is derived from a reputable source and what is invented, what is standard analysis and what is speculation, which sources may be knowledgeable and which are probably not, they damage our public culture and all our lives. (Cited in Phillips et al., 2010, p. 61)

In journalism, truthfulness is usually interpreted as a duty to report with a basis in reality and fact-checked information. Paragraph 1 of The International Federation of Journalists' (IFJ) Global Charter of Ethics reads as follows: 'Respect for the facts and for the right of the public to truth is the first duty of the journalist' (IFJ, 2021). Questions related to the authenticity, credibility, and reliability of sources are regarded as essential to the information quality of journalism. Such ethical demands also play a crucial role in the boundary work of news media organisations towards other types of mediated communication. As Kovach and Rosenstiel (2007) underlined in their influential book about the elements of journalism: 'In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art' (p. 79). In a textbook on ethics for journalists, Brurås (2006, p. 298) characterised truth as 'an overriding requirement, in the sense that all other qualities of a good story become irrelevant if they are not true' .

However, concepts such as truth or truthfulness are not directly mentioned  neither  in  the  Swedish  nor  in  the  Norwegian  ethical codes of the media branch. Instead, a key concept is the truth-related virtue of accuracy , i.e., an obligation for journalists to present correct factual information from credible sources. One reason for avoiding 'truth' as a concept may be that the ethical councils of the media branch have a limited assignment. They are not fact-finding institutions and never conduct any independent investigations in complicated and disputed cases. How media organisations prioritise news and frame their news stories is also outside their mandate and realm of  interest  (Bjerke,  2011).  The  role  of  the  media's  ethical  councils when  complaints  against  published  articles  or  programmes  have been submitted is to organize a review process and decide whether the media organisation has followed the established procedures for 'good press practice' described in their ethical codes.

How such formulations are interpreted in relation to the virtue of accuracy is another story. In a discussion on press ethics in Norway, Bjerke (2011) pointed to the difference between two different levels of accuracy. On a simple report level, the quality demand is limited: citations from identified and seemingly trustworthy sources must be correctly rendered. We may call this 'level 1' . The ethical problem is that this basic type of control is insufficient in many situations and journalistic  reports.  As  a  result,  media  sources  sometimes  provide inaccurate, biased, or misleading information. This lack of a serious verification process obviously applies to politicians and other power players, and the documented stream of lies from the 45th president of the United States is just one, albeit extreme, example. Verification , which may be called 'level 2' , represents  a  more  demanding  factchecking process. Finding relevant and reliable evidence generally requires information from different, independent sources, and that this  information  is  subject  to  critical  scrutiny.  However,  an  independent verification process is costly and time-consuming. In ordinary day-to-day journalism, thorough fact-checking is not, in prac- tice, a requirement before publication, according to Bjerke (2011, p. 129) in an analysis of the Norwegian press ethical system.

It is also evident that accuracy on 'level 1' is inadequate in all cases where sources promote claims that, if published, may publicly harm the  accused.  'Naming and shaming' scandals during the #MeToo movement are a new reminder of the importance of verification processes in serious journalistic work.

## Benny Fredriksson's lost honour

Benny Fredriksson was, until his resignation on December 8, 2018, the CEO of one of Stockholm's most important cultural institutions, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern (Stockholm House of Culture & City Theatre). During earlier stages of his career, he worked both as an actor and  a  stage  director.  In  2002,  Fredriksson  became Stadsteatern's manager and CEO and remained the top leader of the theatre and its administration for fifteen years.

The  front-page  story  that  led  to  his  downfall  was  published December 5, 2017, by Aftonbladet's online edition ( aftonbladet.se ). An abridged version of the article was published in the printed edition of Aftonbladet the following day (Kerpner, 2017). The newspaper's advertising placard for this issue, visible at newsstands all over Sweden, had the following text:

## THEATRE DIRECTOR PRESSURED actor TO ABORTION FOR A ROLE Employees paint a reign of terror by the CEO of Kulturhuset. 'Everyone is afraid of him.'

Aftonbladet claimed that their case presentation was based on 40 testimonies from past and present staff members about Benny Fredriksson's 'reign of terror' . An anonymous source was quoted as saying: 'You may not openly quote me. He would deliberately go in to crush my career' (Kerpner, 2017) . The only identified source in the news article was a former employee who had served as Fredriksson's secretary more than ten years prior. All other citations and claims were based on anonymous sources.

Fredriksson  was  described  as  a  person  with  'a  double  nature' , and one of the examples mentioned was that he once advised an actress 'to have an abortion if she wanted a particular role. She had the abortion and got the role' (Kerpner, 2017). This part of the story, together  with  claims  that  he  had  failed  to  intervene  against  male actors responsible for sexual harassment, made it possible to frame the critique as part of the #MeToo movement.

The #MeToo framing was also underlined in an editorial by Eva Franchell (2017) and a column written by the newspaper's cultural director, Åsa Linderborg. An online version of her commentary was published on December 5, 2017, entitled 'He has run the business with horror and fear' . An almost identical text was published in the paper on December 6, 2017, under the headline 'Politicians closed their eyes to Fredriksson's reign of terror' (Linderborg, 2017a). In the online column, she wrote that 'He has pressured actors not to take parental leave. He has even forced an actress to have an abortion' . In the printed newspaper column, the words 'forced an abortion' were deleted. However, in another commentary, Linderborg (2017b) criticised a Facebook text published by Johan Wirfält, one of Kulturhuset Stadsteatern's middle managers, who criticised Aftonbladet's attack on Fredriksson.  She  dismissed  his  objections  as  follows:  'With  all due respect, but it is not Wirfält's womb that Benny Fredriksson has made demands on.'

Aftonbladet's publications  were  reported  to  the  Press  Ombudsman in 2018 by his widow Anne Sofie von Otter and two sons. The PO summarised their main criticism in four points:

- Aftonbladet had not given Benny Fredriksson a real opportunity to respond to the accusations before the publication
- The newspaper had not published any statements which were to Benny Fredriksson's advantage
- Aftonbladet had not checked the accuracy of the accusations
- The accusations were summarised with a choice of words that gave them another and more serious significance

After  organising  a  round  of  written  answers  and  comments between Aftonbladet and  the  complainants,  the  PO  assessed  the case. In a detailed review, he especially criticised the lack of evidence concerning  several  serious  accusations,  including  undocumented claims  from  anonymous  sources,  which  were  presented  without reservation  by  the  newspaper.  He  concluded  that Aftonbladet had inflicted unjustifiable publicity damage on Benny Fredriksson and should be held accountable for this. He then handed the matter over to the PON for assessment and decision-making.

In the introduction to its assessment, the PON (2019) underlined that a person who is the head of an important cultural institution is 'a person in power who must accept a harsh and thorough examination of the responsibilities that come with leadership' . However, Aftonbladet's publications  'consist  predominantly  of  a  series  of accusations against Benny Fredriksson regarding individual events as well as sweeping and insulting descriptions of him as a person' . PON assessed that the publications about Benny were flawed in several respects. The stories were, with one exception, anonymous, and it appears as if they were part of a petition: 'It is not stated, except in one case, when the allegations should have occurred, and it is not clear whether the newspaper has been in contact with the informants. '  These  circumstances  'show  that  Aftonbladet  has  not  done enough to investigate the information and the newspaper has thus had no basis for publishing such serious accusations' .

Furthermore,  PON  concluded  that  Benny  Fredriksson  was  not given a reasonable opportunity to respond. The main conclusion was as follows:

The Press Council thus shares PO's assessment that Aftonbladet has inflicted unjustifiable publicity damage on Benny Fredriksson. This is a serious press ethics violation, which is also reinforced by the fact that the publication has taken place on a broad front and includes not only the news part but also the editorial and cultural pages.

In summary, this means that Aftonbladet has grossly violated good journalistic practice.

In the preface to an anthology on media ethics and public shaming, Truedson (2020, p. 10) summed up that Aftonbladet's publications about Fredriksson 'developed into one of the most tragic and shocking  cases  Swedish  media  ethics  has  ever  experienced' .  How could it happen?

In a detailed review of the case, Torbjörn von Krogh (2020) pointed to  some  factors  that  seemed  to  have  played  a  significant  role.  As Rosenvinge (2020) documented, one such factor was that Aftonbladet had fallen somewhat behind other news outlets in the commer- cial competition for sensational #MeToo-related revelations. As if this was not enough, the #MeToo story prioritised in Expressen , Aftonbladet's main competitor, were accusations against one of Aftonbladet's well-known reporters and editorial commentators, Fredrik Virtanen. The freelance writer and social media activist Cissy Wallin accused him of rape. 7   Internal contradictions and critique had also led to a leadership crisis inside the news organisation. On December 4, 2017, the  responsible  publisher  and  editor-in-chief,  Sofia  Olsson  Olsén, reported being sick because of a stress reaction. She never returned to the newspaper.

In the last part of November 2017, Åsa Linderborg was contacted by employees of Stadsteatern , who, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, wanted to launch a critique of Benny Fredriksson's leadership methods.  After  she  had  spoken  with  a  few  sources,  the  follow-up was left to Aftonbladet's newsroom (von Krogh, p. 27). The launch of their accusations apparently gave Aftonbladet a unique opportunity to recapture lost ground in the ongoing news competition, and their dramatic news story attracted national attention. Immediately preceding this publication, Linderborg (2017c) penned an indignant column about Expressen's speculations about #MeToo and Aftonbladet . She characterised it as motivated by an 'unrestrained aggression in  the  pursuit  of  market  shares' .  Unfortunately,  this  also  seems  to be a precise summary of Aftonbladet's lowering of the ethical news threshold in the Benny Fredriksson case.

## Trond Giske's scandalised bar dance

In  early  December  2017,  two  leading  Norwegian  news  outlets, Dagens  Næringsliv and VG ,  wrote  that  the  Labour  Party's  leadership had received #MeToo-related alerts from several women about Trond  Giske,  one  of  the  party's  deputy  leaders.  The  claims  in  the alerts  were  that  Giske  had  previously  exposed  them  to  unwanted sexual advances. Two of the women later stood forward and publicly presented  their  case.  Giske  generally  denied  that  he  had  sexually harassed the women but regretted that he had sometimes behaved in a way that individuals had perceived as inappropriate or unpleasant. According to an internal party summary of Giske's commentary to one of the cases, he 'admits that he was too drunk and that his behaviour was inappropriate both in terms of his position and the age difference between them … He has given the woman his unreserved apology' . 8

However,  Giske  also  characterised  other  alerts  as  baseless  and false. The party leadership, however, concluded in their assessment that, on several occasions, he had violated the party's internal guidelines. As a result, he lost his position in the central leadership of the party.

Despite  this,  Giske  continued  to  be  trusted  by  many  party  colleagues in Trondheim, his local constituency in mid-Norway (Sletteland & Orgeret, 2020, s. 81). From both inside and outside the party, suspicions were also raised about alarms of sexual harassment being used in an internal power struggle. As in other mediated scandals, the extent, intensity, and one-sidedness of the media coverage led to some counter-reactions and sympathy among the general public.

Around a year after his downfall, in February 2019, Giske was proposed by the local election committee to be the elected deputy leader of the Labour Party in Trøndelag, a county in which Trondheim is the largest town. This position would also give him a place in the national party leadership. Political observers and pundits interpreted the proposal as an attempt at political rehabilitation.

Shortly  after  this  nomination,  Giske  visited  Vulkan  Bar  in  his neighbourhood.  A  young  woman,  Sofie  (27),  who  was  celebrating her birthday with some friends, recognised him and spontaneously invited him to dance with her. 9  He obliged. One of her female friends filmed the episode, and the six-second-long video was later shared privately among some of Sofie's friends. However, the video recording was also leaked to others, among them a local trade union official. He interpreted this as a new '#MeToo affair' , and without contacting Sofie, he sent a 'message of concern' to the Labour Party's central leadership. The video was also leaked as a news tip to one of VG's journalists and 'Giske hunters' , Lars Joakim Skarvøy.

Skarvøy  quickly  contacted  Sofie  and  organised  a  meeting  with her about the video. On February 21, VG published an online article about the case. The main message, and frame, was a new 'message of concern' to the Labour Party about Giske. The video recording was described as follows: 'It shows that Giske hangs over the back of a woman in her 20s and places his hand on the woman's hip while they dance. The woman then bends away from Giske' . Sofie, referred to as

'the woman in the video' , is cited as saying: 'We danced and had a good time, then it became a bit much, so my friend and I left. '

Following VG's publication, Sofie contacted NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster, to challenge VG's representation of the case, and she said in an interview that the dance with Giske was 'unproblematic and OK' . Despite this quick public denial of VG's claims, the proposal to elect Giske to a new leadership position in the Labour Party in Trøndelag was immediately withdrawn, and Giske himself withdrew his candidacy.

In the weeks that followed, criticism of VG's working methods in the case increased, especially after an interview on March 20, 2019, with Sofie on TV2, one of the national TV channels. It also became known that, after Sofie's critical interview with NRK, VG's editor-inchief, Gard Steiro, called her personally. He repeatedly asked whether she had perceived the meeting with Giske as unpleasant, which she denied (PFU, 2019).

A few days later, on March 27, VG presented a self-evaluation report about the case and admitted to violations of several paragraphs of the Norwegian media's ethical guidelines. However, VG's editors also presented journalist Lars Joakim Skarvøy's and Sofie's differing views about the disputed 'citation' in the initial online article as two equal and alternative versions of what had been agreed in their meeting.

After a formal complaint from Sofie, The Press Complaints Commission (PFU) appraised the case on August 28, 2019 and concluded that VG had used 'unacceptable methods' in its relations with a nonprofessional source (PFU, 2019). The critique from the PFU concerns both VG's publication about the Vulkan Bar case and its later selfevaluation report. According to the PFU, this represented a breach of good press practices concerning five paragraphs in the ethical codes, Vær Varsom-plakaten .

In the Spring of 2019, a committee was appointed by the Norwegian Press Association, with a mandate to bring about a broad investigation  of  the  media's  relationship  with  their  sources,  including some lessons from the VG case. The report was delivered in November the same year (Omdal et al., 2019). In his discussion about the Swedish and Norwegian #MeToo cases, von Krogh (2020, p. 32) characterised such thorough and critical investigations of media ethics as 'the tool Sweden lacks' . Among the topics discussed were the media's relations  with  anonymous  sources,  premises  concerning  contacts between  sources  and  interviewees,  requirements  for  documentation, and citation rules. The committee also proposed some revisions in the ethical codes (Omdal et al., 2019). After a round of consultations and debates in the media industry, the board of the Norwegian Press Association adopted changes in five of the paragraphs, among other  things  clarifying  the  guidelines  concerning  identification, accuracy, allegations from anonymous sources, and citation control. It also included a warning against misusing inexperienced sources.

## Discussion and conclusion

Journalists' relations with their sources have always been vital for news media content and the quality of journalism. The credo about journalism as a discipline of verification (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2007) underlines  the  importance  of  norms  related  to  fact-checking  and accuracy. Gross violations of such ethical rules, as the above cases illustrate, immediately lead to loss of trust in the newsrooms involved and endangers public trust in journalism as an institution. The sharp, professional criticism directed at Aftonbladet and VG ,  respectively, may therefore be interpreted as necessary 'boundary work' (Carlson, 2015, p. 10), a demarcation against publication types and a journalism practice that cannot be accepted. It may also function as a confidence-building branch strategy.

A  key  question  seldom  discussed  in  relation  to  specific  complaints is why journalists - and their newsrooms - are from time to time tempted to overlook elementary and well-known ethical rules concerning  fairness  and  accuracy.  Why  do  they  lose  their  ethical foothold? One of the crucial factors is arguably an inherent conflict between different norms related to professional, market-driven journalism.

When particular types of news stories capture the public interest, such as the #MeToo movement in the autumn of 2017, they immediately  influence  newsroom  priorities.  However,  anonymous  testimonies about sexual harassment and structural critiques of men's misuse of power are difficult to present as eye-catching and exciting human stories - especially after the first reports and headlines. Professional, market-driven journalism requires news stories based on  concretisation  and  personification,  and  for  popular  journalis- tic media, this is more or less 'a life-and-death matter' . If such revelations  can  be  presented  as  an  attempt  to  hold  powerholders  to account, they also demonstrate the importance of another important professional norm.

Commercial  news  values  provide  the  self-fulfilling  impetus  for the editorial hunting of stories linked to or directed at well-known persons,  celebrities,  and  powerholders.  Being  the  first  newsroom fessional  prestige,  and  if  other  newsrooms  follow  up  on  this,  it  is regarded as a success among peers. That was exactly what happened after Aftonbladet's 'scoop' about Benny Fredriksson; the story was

to  launch  a  political  scandal  may  increase  the  organisation's  profollowed up by many other news media outlets.

While  Swedish  media  have  gradually  learnt  to  be  more restrictive in publishing names, for example, in their crime reports (Pollack, 2020), the hunt for #MeToo-relevant, personalised stories quickly  lowered  the  threshold  for  publishing  names  in  relation  to allegations of sexual harassment. As Rosenvinge (2020) pointed out in  an  analysis  of  the  first  month  of  #MeToo,  whether  names  were published or not did not follow any logic or principal line; it could change from day to day on a case-by-case basis.

In major scandal cases, larger news media often compete for the leading role in the hunt. Without verification of these claims, Aftonbladet's willingness to publish a long list of defamatory accusations against Benny Fredriksson may first and foremost be interpreted as a desperate move to conquer a leading position in the #MeToo news race. Even the editorial opinion and cultural pages were used in the attack, a strategy that should demonstrate the importance and seriousness of the alleged scoop. However, this also helped make the ethical violations more severe and resulted in a backlash that secured Aftonbladet's coverage of the Benny Fredriksson case a place in 'the hall of shame' in the history of Swedish media ethics.

VG's Vulkan Bar story was also presented as a 'sensational' story about  a  (former)  powerholder,  but  the  methods  used  became  the most important ethical question: it was an attempt to create a 'scandal' by manipulating a non-professional source and constructing a misleading citation. This practice represented a violation of norms about honesty and sincerity in relation to news media sources. The strong reactions from peers and the criticism from the media's ethical watchdog, the PFU, emphasised that this was a harmful act to the public and represented an undermining of the relationship between journalism and its sources.

Another  common  feature  related  to Aftonbladet's articles  about Benny  Fredriksson  and VG's Vulkan  Bar  story  about  Trond  Giske was the construction of these cases as #MeToo-related. This intentional  framing,  without  doubt,  strengthened  the  commercial  and political news value of the cases. However, both attempts were based on loose grounds. In the Benny Fredriksson case, this was based on unfounded  claims  and  misrepresentation.  Most  of  the  potentially substantial critique - if Aftonbladet had researched the story - was how he exercised his power as a director and CEO, which was practically unrelated to personal stories of sexual harassment. In the Bar Vulkan case, the #MeToo associations were based on misinterpretations of a harmless private dance episode - and a journalistic manipulation of a citation from an inexperienced source.

Journalists  often  highlight  the  ability  to  criticise  powerholders' norms transgression as an important mission and the legitimacy of their craft. Therefore, the right to publish revelations that may harm others is also part and parcel of journalism ethics. However, the precondition for this right is that the publication is based on relevant, accurate information and that the framing does not distort the context of the case.

The global #MeToo movement pointed to the widespread structural problem of sexual harassment, which was also the case in Sweden and Norway. Across the various sectors of working life, women were able  to  identify  with  the  call.  This  perspective,  however,  was undermined in the public sphere when person-centred scandal stories about a few powerholders and media celebrities took over. The important  political  issues  highlighted  by  the  #MeToo  movement diminished in importance. Unscrupulous name publishing and lack of  verification  weakened  public  trust  in  journalism,  resulting  in  a backlash against the public discussions surrounding sexual harassment.

## NOTES

- 1 In 2020, the PO was renamed the Media Ombudsman (MO), and the PON changed  its  name  to  Mediernas  etiknämnd  (the  Media  Council).  The name changes were related to an extension of the institution's mandate: While the PO primarily assessed ethical cases related to the printing press and their  online  outlets,  the  MO  assesses  ethical  cases  related  to  print media, radio, television and online media. Before 2020, a public institution, The Review Board for Radio and Television (Granskningsnämden for radio och tv), assessed all ethical complaints against radio and television channels in Sweden.
- 2 A few #MeToo-related cases were assessed by The Review Board for Radio and Television, among them, a programme published by Swedish Television's investigative programme Uppdrag Granskning (UG), #MeToo och Fredrik Virtanen. SVT/UG was criticised for invasion of privacy in relation to Cissy Walin, the person who had accused Virtanen of rape (Adelai & Hill, 2019).
- 3 https://presse.no/pfu/ (PFU-sak 1987/18; PFU-sak 188/18 and PFU-sak 189/18).
- 4 Quotes from Swedish and Norwegian newspaper articles and documents were translated into English by the authors.
- 5 See Harcup and O'Neill (2017) and O'Neil and Harcup (2009) for an overview.
- 6 VG, January 19, 1983.
- 7 In  2011,  Wallin  reported  Virtanen  to  the  police  on  allegations  of  rape, which were alleged to have occurred in 2006. Virtanen denied this, and the case did not lead to legal action. In 2019, Wallin was sentenced to probation for gross defamation because of her public accusations.
- 8 Letter to the Labour Party's central board, cited by VG on January 2, 2018.
- 9 We base the presentation of the Vulkan Bar case on information provided to the PFU (2019).

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## SIGURD ALLERN

Professor Emeritus Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo sigurd.allern@media.uio.no

## ESTER POLLACK

Professor

Department of Media Studies, Section of Journalism, Media and Communication Studies (JMK) Stockholm University ester.pollack@ims.su.se

DOI: 10.7146/journalistica.v15i1.125415