There's an interesting item on MountainRunner about this briefer given out by the Foreign Ministry, about how the Swedish Foreign Ministry should deal with the media. Curiously, the English and Swedish versions are not identical. Have a look at the blow-up after the jump to see what we mean. (And no, we don't speak Swedish either, so we're taking Matt Armstrong's word for it.)The most notable difference between the two is that in the Swedish version, there's an item that says "Don't ask sources"-meaning don't ask journalists where they got their information from-because Sweden apparently has strong laws protecting whistle blowers.In fact, Sweden has a great track record with press freedom, at least on paper. It was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish censorship-in 1766-and to instate a law making government documents available to citizens (and the press). Nice work trailblazing transparency laws, Sweden!Anyway, there's already one interesting commenter on Armstrong's blog. We'd be interested to see what other people have to say, especially those fluent in Swedish-and Swedish law. Is Sweden as kind to its journalists as it seems?
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