Since it became clear that the government will produce a Swedish cultural canon, i.e. a list of cultural works that will form a common cultural frame of reference, the proposal has been debated.
On Thursday, nine trade unions and interest organizations issued a joint appeal against the proposal, including the Journalists' Union.
Mårten Arndtzén believes that the Journalist Association's stance is not compatible with his work as a public service journalist, where he should be able to impartially cover what he calls the hottest cultural policy issue in Sweden right now.
- I will probably have to deal with it as a culture journalist at Sveriges Radio.
I will of course do this objectively and impartially, but I also want to be able to do it with full integrity and credibility.
It will then be problematic to belong to a union that has already gone out in the name of the members and taken a position on the issue, he says.
"Does not adventure the independence"
Ulrika Hyllert, president of the Association of Journalists, writes in an email to Kulturnyheterna that it is not unusual for them to take political positions on various issues.
She does not see it as a problem for individual members' ability to be impartial in their journalism.
"Journalists can of course be part of the Journalists' Association without it jeopardizing the independence of the individual.
Anything else would be unreasonable.
I have not noticed that the public confuses the union's positions with the personal opinions of individual members, or has difficulty accepting journalistic independence while being members of their union."
She also adds that the association has only been contacted by fewer than a handful of people after their stance on the cultural canon issue.