June Blog

I did not do an all-nighter nor did I get into the whole tea and scones thing, but I was one of the two billion or so people around the world who caught some of the highlights of the royal wedding in London, and I found it to be a very pleasant romantic interlude in the midst of all the dismal news pouring in during a cold and rainy spring.

My ears perked up when one of the commentators remarked that there had been much more pomp and circumstance at Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling's wedding in Stockholm last year. So it is rather sad that the Swedish royal wedding was hardly mentioned in international media. And the reason for this was that the three major world news agencies decided to boycott the event.

The exclusive broadcasting rights for the wedding in the Storkyrkan cathedral were granted by the Royal Court to the public-service Sveriges Television, SVT because it is commercial free. Yet this same state-financed public service broadcaster demanded such a high fee for its footage, that AFP, AP and Reuters had to decline and all three agencies decided subsequently not to cover the event in any format, including text and stills pictures.

SVT claimed that it was charging "standard" fees, but the news organizations argued that a news event of historical importance should not be treated in the same way as a sports or entertainment event. Furthermore the charge fees "largely surpassed the market price". In a last-minute attempt to cover the event the three agencies even e-mailed the royal Court as well as the Prime Minister of Sweden citing freedom of the press and complaining about "the increasingly commercialized" use of events. But it was to no avail.

After the wedding MediaPilot estimated the publicity value of the royal wedding to be SEK 2.7 billion, with almost half of the coverage being in German periodicals and news sites. MediaPilot did not measure the value from broadcast media neither did it estimate the value had all the 45 accredited television broadcasters and 700 foreign journalists been given more access to the event.

As the Brits demonstrated, a royal wedding is a huge public relations event in which everybody in the country pulls for the common good. It is embarrassing for Sweden when a state-financed public broadcaster doesn't do its part.

I myself am still mad at SVT for not allowing the Scandinavian Center in Vancouver to re-broadcast its Olympic coverage. Why could it not have shown the same level of generosity as the public broadcasters in Norway and Finland did with their coverage?

Have a really nice June

Anders

PS. "We were very lucky with the weather. Sunny blue skies and warm," writes Kathryn Hallsten (above) who won the Swedish Press trip for two with Icelandair to Sweden and Iceland with the added bonus of a stay at Grand Hotel in Stockholm. "We biked the National Park trail, walked around Gamla Stan and Djurgården and toured the city on a boat. Iceland was fascinating...Glaciers, waterfalls and geysers...unbelievable wilderness and interesting geology...Lots of fish and striking Scandinavian art and architecture. I just wanted to thank you and let you know that we had a phenomenal experience in Stockholm and Iceland."