Sweden: Did Media Cover up 2015 Sex Molestation Facts?

Hat tip Nyheter Idag. Translation by Fousesquawk.

 

We have often pointed out that in Western Europe, police and media generally try to obscure the fact that arrested criminals are often people of foreign background. That is because migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers etc. are generally Muslims from the Middle East, Africa, or places like Afghanistan. It is basically political correctness run amok, to the extreme that the public theoretically would not be aware of the threat that exists in their countries. This is not to suggest that all immigrants and especially those from Muslim-majority countries are dangerous, but the facts do speak for themselves when it comes to terrorism and crime, including sexual assaults.

In 2015, a festival was held in Stockholm and many young Swedish girls were subjected to sexual molestation. Most, if not all, of the perpetrators and arrestees were Afghans. Yet this fact was concealed from the public by either the police, the media, or both. 

The below article describing an investigation by the conservative Swedish outlet, Nyheter Idag, is translated by Fousesquawk.

*Translator's note: The events in this article, most of which go back to 2015-16, are routinely reported by Nyheter Idag in the present tense. For the sake of clarity, we have substituted the past tense to describe these events. Also note in the opening paragraph, NI appears to refer to the festival of 2016. This is likely a misprint as the festival in question was 2015.

https://nyheteridag.se/sa-stoppade-tv4-reportaget-om-sexbrottslingarnas-etnicitet/

How TV4 stopped the reporting on sex offenders' ethnicity

 

Caption below photo:  Extensive sexual abuse occurred at the We Are Sthlm Festival. Photo: Nyheter Idag.

 

Stockholm: Now Nyheter Idag (News Today) can reveal that TV4 stopped a comprehensive report about sex crimes during the We Are Sthlm Festival 2016. Email correspondence between police and a TV4 reporter shows that young men with a foreign background were behind sex harassment against young girls. The TV4-boss who stopped the reportage refused to comment on the decision.-"I'm not interested," he said to Nyheter Idag and closed himself off in the basement of his residence.

In January 2016, Nyheter Idag revealed that the Dagens Nyheter newspaper covered up sexual abuse against young girls at the "We Are Sthlm" Festival, which took place a half year earlier, in 2015. DN received verified, first-hand information that young girls were subjected to sex attacks in the audience, but chose not to publish the information.

The disclosure from Nyheter Idag on the coverup of sex abuse was sensitive and awakened an extensive debate, not the least of which that some of the girls were as young as 12. DN's decision not to report the sex abuse could be a consequence that many of the perpetrators were unaccompanied Afghans.  That explanation was received by Nyheter Idag from the informant who first was in contact with DN.

 

In August 2016, national economist Tino Sanandaji published an internal police report on his blog with information about the perpetrators' background. Police authorities said that a "large problem group" was a youth gang of about 50 persons.

 

"These are so-called refugee youths, mostly from Afghanistan. Many of the gang were arrested for sexual molestation," police authorities wrote.

 

TV4 reporter maps the ethnicity of the suspected sex offenders

 

After Sanandaji published the police report, TV4 began a survey of the 2016 festival, in which young girls continued to be subjected to the same type of sex abuse. TV4 reporter Helena Gissen asked for information from police on the suspected perpetrators' ethnicity. At first, it was slow. In an email dated 1 September 2016, she requested a reconsideration of a decision where police blacked out information.

 

"We have received partially-blacked out copies of all crime reports connected to the 2016 We Are Sthlm Festival. We request a reconsideration of the decision to black out information regarding suspects of sexual molestation in connection with the festival," wrote Gissen to Carl-Gustav Wrangel of the police authorities.

 

"We particularly wish to get information as to interpreter need (and language), citizenship, and nation of birth," continued Gissen.

 

In an email to police authorities on 23 September, the same year, Gissen also inquired about the birthdates of the suspects. She further requested, from the police investigation into the We Are Sthlm (Festival) the previous year, the same document that Tino Sanandaji published on his blog.

 

When Nyheter Idag spoke with the now-retired policeman, Carl-Gustav Wrangel, he said that Gissen, "was quite anxious," to get access to the ethnicity of the suspected perpetrators. He was then operating under (confidentiality rules) in the police and remembered the correspondence. 

 

"That leaves a little bit in the air since people want to know if it was a foreigner or migrant, or if it was an asylum-seeker who was the perpetrator. Or if it was an ordinary Swede. That is what everywhere wants to know. There I was quite clear in saying that I do not give out that type of information."

 

Instead, Wrangel pointed out that that the journalist could (wait) until an investigative protocol became public. In the protocol, it tells whether a suspected perpetrator has a background in another country, or whether, for example, needs an interpreter.

 

"I added a little cautiously that one doesn't have to be a big genius to figure out that most are not named Johansson in any case, " said Wrangel to Nyheter Idag.

 

The reportage was stopped by the responsible publisher Anders Oxelström of TV4

 

In the email correspondence with police, it is clear that Gissen, after repeated pressure, succeeded in finding out just over half of the suspected perpetrators' ethnicity from the perpetrators she was investigating. In many cases, information was lacking on ethnicity, but in the cases where there was information, none of the perpetrators had Swedish origin.

 

The work with the reporting doesn't end there. According to a source to Nyheter Idag, Gissen contacted  former policeman Mustafa Panshiri as well as debater Anosh Ghasri.

 

Panshiri, who himself, has a background from Afghanistan, works with lecturing unaccompanied children about Sweden and which laws and regulations apply here. Ghasri is a regular writer for Nya Wermlandstidningen as well as Dagens Samhälle, and is active in debates on immigration issues.

 

In an article published in Timbro, Ghasri said in September 2016, he was contacted "by a reporter from a big media company". Ghasri said that he agreed to participate in a debate in connection with a feature on unaccompanied (minors). He didn't say that it was TV4 and Helena Gisson who contacted him.

 

On the other hand, the information was confirmed by Gissen when Nyheter Idag contacted her. She said that the decision to stop the report was made by the managers.

 

"They had slightly different thoughts and wanted us to go further in journalistic work. But I think you should speak with..... So, it is really (the case) that it is a manager who has now quit," says Gissen to Nyheter Idag and refers to TV4-News' former responsible publisher,  Anders  Oxelström.

 

"But this was a normal publication procedure, it happens," adds Gissen, without further explaining how she would be able to go further with this journalistic work.

 

But according to Ghasri, TV4 acted as if the entire report was done and ready to be broadcast. Ghasri himself said in the Timbro article that "the company", that is TV4, booked train tickets and hotels as well as other transport and costs for participation in the subsequent debate in connection with the report.

 

Some day before he was to travel to TV4, he received an SMS from the reporter.  "Call as soon as you see this please," stated the message.

 

"When I called, the reporter announced, also frustrated and apologetic, that some of the managers  had backed out of the feature and wanted to set up the debate (in a way) that they  had time to recheck the material," wrote Ghasri. It has now been over a half year since Ghasri was contacted by TV4, and he states that the debate "still hasn't ended and the feature has not been broadcast."

 

Responsible manager refuses to answer questions; "I'm not interested."

 

The manager to whom Gissen referred is named Anders  Oxelström. He previously worked as responsible publisher at TV4-News, but quit the TV channel in May 2017. He has previously worked 11 years for Dagens Nyheter, which belongs to the same media concern as TV4.

 

When Nyheter Idag called to the switchboard at TV4, they had no telephone number for  Oxelström to refer to. Neither did Helena Gissen have such a telephone number. Nyheter Idag wanted to ask the question to Oxelström if the decision to stop the publication could be self-censorship.

 

That is a question he himself has commented on previously when he, in the role of responsible publisher at TV4, chose to publish images from the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, after the terror attack in Paris. After the publication, he himself was interviewed on TV4, and he noted that journalists should engage in self-censorship in issues that can be sensitive.

 

He then warned of, "a risk of a form of self-censorship among journalists," and that, "there are many who talk of the last 24 hours here," he said in the news feature.

 

To a follow-up question, Oxelström said that the risk of self-censorship can depend on fear.

 

"As a publicist and journalist, it is important, I think that we never let go of the idea of being relevant, alert, and reporting on what is happening,"  continued Oxelström.

 

Nyheter Idag never obtained Anders Oxelström's phone number. Instead, we drove to his residence. We found him in the basement of the residence.

 

"I am not interested," he said to Nyheter Idag through the open basement door.

 

Not just a single question"

 

"No."

 

Not at all?

 

"No, unfortunately," said and closed the basement door.

 

Nyheter Idag sought out both Panshiri and Ghasri for comment, without results. Do you want to sponsor more media-watch reports? Become a PLUS-member here!

 

Inset: Fact: How to (conceal) sex crime

 

After Nyheter Idag revealed that Dagens Nyheter concealed the extensive sexual assaults during the We Are Sthlm Festival, DN published their own article on the festival. In the article, DN asserted that instead, it was the police who concealed the assaults. They quoted policeman Peter Ågren, who, according to DN explained that, "We sometimes don't dare say what it is because we believe that plays into the hands of the Sweden Democrats."

 

When Nyheter Idag contacted Ågren to reveal DN's concealment, he said that DN misquoted him. Similarly, in the police's own investigation, it comes out that there is no support for DN's position that it was the police who concealed.

 

The entire revelation from Nyheter Idag was examined by the Norwegian Journalist Association's newspaper, Journalist.no. They found that the revelation that DN concealed the assaults was correct. You can read the article here.

 

No Swedish media contacted Nyheter Idag about the revelation on DN's cover-up. On the contrary, in practice, all major media uncritically spread DN's version that it was the police, and not DN, who obscured the sex assaults.