Criticism against SVT for documentary on George Soros

George Soros became famous in the early 1990s for extensive currency speculation and for supporting cultural and educational projects in former communist states in Eastern Europe.

Soros has long been the subject of conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination by people on the right, but in recent years the theories have become more numerous and have gained hold in wider layers.

On Sunday, SVT published a documentary in Play about the conspiracy theories surrounding Soros. But both the documentary, and especially how it was presented, have been criticized by both the major newspapers and on social media.

"In fact, he (Soros) is the brain behind a global conspiracy with the aim of opening all borders and undermining elected leaders such as Trump, Erdogan, Orban and Putin," the program description, which has now changed.

- SVT presented the documentary with a purely conspiratorial statement "is George Soros behind ..." and then a lot of things. When the BBC presented the film, they were careful that it was about conspiracy theories, says writer Isobel Hadley-Kamptz, who has written about the documentary in Expressen.

Axel Arnö, project manager SVT Documentary, says that the program presentation has changed, but that the critics miss the goal.

- We assume that people are watching the program. I was a bit surprised, the criticism against the BBC was that it was "left-wing and you can't trust them". But if you can perceive the presentation as being behind crazy conspiracy theories, we have to change that, he says.

Axel Arnö thinks it is important to go through the untrue conspiracies that exist around Soros in order to punch them.

"In some way you have to talk about the crazy theories to be able to tell what it is about, these people exist," he says.

Isobel Hadley-Kamptz, however, believes that the conspiracy theories are presented in too much detail and too long before the counter image comes. 

- I think you can show that the theories exist, but then you have to show it more clearly that these are pure inventions. I feel that choosing to communicate it becomes like a false balance, "some say he's the devil, others don't, let's investigate," she says.