As recently as last week, the Supreme Court rejected prosecutor Henrik Nordquist's request to obtain riot footage from Rosengård taken by photographers from six media houses, including Sydsvenskan and TT News Agency.
But Nordquist is going to make a new attempt. This week, he submitted a new and more specific request to the district court. According to him, his first request fell due to lack of clarity – not due to legal obstacles. Moreover, he believes that it neither restricts source protection nor media independence.
Considering that it concerns very serious and socially threatening crimes, I believe that the drawbacks for the media houses are not so severe that they outweigh.
More important to prosecute
Nordquist emphasizes that he has taken into account how media houses may be affected and that he has an obligation to adhere to ethical guidelines, but that he has again concluded that it is more important to obtain the images in order to prosecute rioters.
Sydsvenskan's responsible publisher Jonas Kanje does not share this view and, like several other media houses, has been critical of the request.
If we are also regarded as the police's extended arm, it becomes directly life-threatening for our employees, he says.
Kanje believes that the Supreme Court's ruling established media independence, the importance of source protection, and the importance of not mixing media with authorities, but that they did not go all the way:
When the Supreme Court says that this was a reasonable request, I think they went too far.
Would rather go to prison
On Thursday, an editorial meeting was held at Sydsvenskan, where they discussed how to approach the situation.
If the district court were to say that the criteria are now met to hand over the images, we will take a stand on it then. There are cases where one might think it is reasonable, but fundamentally, we do not hand over unpublished material, and definitely not anything that threatens source protection.
If we in any way make an assessment that it threatens source protection, I am prepared to take a prison sentence to protect it.
