Det här är ett offentligt ställningstagande i en kontroversiell fråga - En kvalitativ studie om redaktionella överväganden gällande införandet av restriktioner till följd av Gad-uppropet

Abstract

In the summer of 2025, a petition criticizing the media coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as calling for greater freedom of the press in Gaza, was published in Swedish media. The “Gad-petition” rendered immense media scrutiny, and as a result of this, multiple news organisations decided to invoke restrictions barring undersigned journalists from reporting on the conflict. The aim of this thesis is to explore which arguments contributed to a decision for or against invoking restrictions, as a result of the Gad-petition. Furthermore, this study aims to understand how the petition has changed the conditions for Swedish journalism. To fulfill the aim of this thesis, this study seeks answers to the following questions: 1: What arguments were the basis for the decision to invoke or not invoke restrictions? 2: How were different arguments valued in the decision-making process? And 3: What consequences has the decision to invoke or not invoke restrictions had on the newsrooms? To answer these questions, we have conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with decision makers at Sweden’s largest newsrooms. These interviews were subsequently analysed through a theoretical framework of professionalism, as well as objectivity. The main findings include that newsroom decision makers in general value the same journalistic ideals; impartiality, reliability and independence, among others. However, this study concludes that despite the fact that the same arguments regarding invoking restrictions recurred in multiple interviews, the arguments were prioritized differently between newsrooms. Further, in the wake of the Gad-petition, these ideals were also measured against practical factors, such as whether the newsroom had prolific reporters covering the Middle East, or whether the newsroom leaders considered the petition as a political statement, or as critique of the media.