Good, Bad, and Ugly

No wedding coverage

Robert Basler

Jun 20, 2010 09:24 UTC

News groups pull coverage of Swedish royal wedding

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three news organizations pulled coverage of the wedding of Sweden’s heir to the throne on Saturday, protesting restrictions set by a Swedish state broadcaster.

Reuters, owned by Thomson Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France Presse complained about redistribution terms set by Sveriges Television (SVT) for audiovisual rights to footage of Sweden’s first royal wedding in more than 30 years.

To claim that withholding any coverage of the Swedish royal wedding in the “interest of freedom of the press” is the clearest example of double-speak from the press there ever was.

It’s something you would expect from Pravda or Xinhua! Then to claim that the wedding of a non-reigning princess in a small, Nordic country is not entertainment, but a major historical event, is ludicrous if not pathetic!