In an editorial in Dagens ETC, writer Kasja Ekis Ekman writes critically about the newspaper Kyiv Independent, which was frequently quoted during the war.
In the text, Ekman says that the newspaper has links to the Azov Battalion.
She also writes that the newspaper is not as independent as it claims to be and takes as an example that several editorial staff members have had paid internships on a journalism project that collaborates with the US State Department.
The Azov Battalion has its roots among right-wing nationalists and football hooligans and uses Nazi-inspired symbols.
The battalion is a small, but integrated, part of the Ukrainian National Guard and fights against Russia.
"Insidious formulations"
Kajsa Ekis Ekman has been criticized for her text having similarities with a longer report on the site Mint press news which posts content from state-controlled RT, formerly Russia Today, and Sputnik.
The newspaper Arbetet global, which is mentioned in the editorial, has recently started a collaboration with Kyiv independent.
"Like Mint press news, ETC's editorial page presents easily accessible and uncontroversial facts wrapped in insidious wording, so that they appear as compromising revelations," writes Arbetet Global's editor Ivar Andersen.
But that the text published in Dagens ETC would be a plagiarism, or inspired by Mint press news reportage, is not true, according to Andreas Gustavsson.
- That article was published a day after I received the text from Kajsa Ekis Ekman in my inbox, so that criticism is not true, he says.
Social media posts about RT
Dagens ETC's editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson believes, however, that the criticism of Ekman's text in Dagens ETC is not the reason why the newspaper breaks with the writer, who has written in Dagens ETC since 2014.
- It came to my knowledge today that Kajsa Ekis Ekman in social interactions has downplayed Russia Today and what they do in the world and that is my limit, he says.
Russia today, RT, is a Russian state-controlled television channel and the "social interaction" has taken place in a comment field on Instagram.
Andreas Gustavsson says that he perceived the text about Kyiv independent as provocative, but that he stands by the decision to publish.
Despite this, he believes that the leadership side must be more in line with the newspaper line in the future.
- Readers, subscribers and the public Sweden expect that there is a clearer newspaper voice - we will try to get that as soon as possible, he says.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
This is the Azov Battalion - see a summary in the clip.
Photo: Azov Battalion's recruitment video
The cultural news is looking for Kajsa Ekis Ekman.