It was on Tuesday that SD leader Linus Bylund explained the concept of "journalist rugby" to the assembled press outside Sweden's Riksdag.

According to Bylund, it is about "pushing journalists".

SD's press service later told SVT that Bylund's statement was meant as a joke because SD's party leader Jimmie Åkesson had difficulty getting into his car earlier in the day due to the press gathering.

However, the statement provoked strong reactions where one side believed that the hardening rhetoric against free press is a threat to democracy and the other side that what SD stated was a joke that led to overreactions.

Journalists' association: "It's irresponsible"

Ulrika Hyllert, president of the Journalists' Association, says that Bylund's statement has provoked strong reactions among the members.

- Many wonder what this means and what it can lead to.

It is considered irresponsible and that it does not befit the society we want, says Hyllert.

She further believes that this kind of "rough and contemptuous jargon" in the long run leads to threats and hatred towards journalists and bases her statement on conversations with members of the union who themselves have been exposed.

Threats and hatred against journalists

However, Ulrika Hyllert thinks that it must be taken into account that the discussion on social media is often conducted in a high tone and that the bigger problem is that there are already journalists who leave the profession as a result of threats and hatred.

- In those cases, it's not about something sloppy that someone overinterprets, but criminal threats.

Almost 30 percent of Sweden's journalists have been subjected to threats and 70 percent state that they have received derogatory comments.

This is shown by a survey conducted in 2019 by the Association of Journalists and the University of Gothenburg in 2019.

According to Hyllert, it is difficult to say how many have left the industry because SJF's surveys are only aimed at those who are currently journalists, and thus not those who have left the profession.

Kulturnyheterna has applied for Linus Bylund (SD).