Sunday, July 17, 2016

Sweden silences documentary tying jihadism, anti-Semitism

Swedish state television refuses to air commissioned documentary after directors refuse to demonize Israel, US.
(INN) Swedish state television channel Sveriges Television (SVT) has decided not to broadcast a documentary showing links between anti-Semitism and radical Islam because it would not be "politically correct."

The Danish news site Berlingske reports that the program, titled Watching the Moon at Night, documents the effect of terrorism on Jews. While the Swedish Film Institute granted directors Bo Persson and Joanna Helander public funding, STV did all it could to twist their message.

Persson claims that SVT project manager Lars Säfström frequently instructed him to demonize Israel and the United States. "He tried to influence the film’s content…For us it was totally unacceptable that he should interfere with the content," he told Berlingske. "It was totally unacceptable for us."

SVT, however, insists that it pulled the plug on Watching the Moon At Night because it did not stand up to proper journalistic standards, and that it was too close to being a polemic essay.

Despite SVT's intransigence, Watching the Moon at Night has already been shown in a number of film festivals and a total of six countries.