Region Stockholm silenced employees during the election campaign

It was during an interview with SVT Stockholm that the communications manager sat with and influenced.

The feature was about abuses in healthcare and whether healthcare workers' testimony about staff shortages may have influenced the voting in the regional election.

On the recording, you can hear how the communications manager corrects the midwife's statement:

"You may speak in your own capacity, but you may not speak in the capacity of an employee, in politics," says Malin Pettersson, head of communications at Södertälje Hospital.

Contact SVT to remove quotes

Without asking the midwife, the manager then contacts SVT Stockholm to influence the publication.

In the video above, you can hear how the conversation with the communications manager sounded.

Freedom of expression expert Nils Funcke: "You can't do that"

The guidelines were drawn up in November 2021 ahead of the upcoming election campaign.

It has been decided in the regional board's labor and personnel committee and was signed by both finance regional councilor Iréne Svenonius (M) and opposition regional councilor Aida Hadzialic (S).

Photo: from Region Stockholm's guidelines for political communication

But employees have freedom of speech to express their opinions about both politics and working conditions.

Managers must not restrict freedom of expression - despite guidelines from the highest political authority.

- If we must always risk stepping over different rules when we try to convey problems we experience in our working conditions, then it will be difficult to talk.

It is tying rice to one's own back for the region, says Maria Nordén Norman, midwife and union elected representative of the Swedish Association of Midwives/SRAT.

Nils Funcke, who is an author and expert on the fundamentals of freedom of expression, is clear in his criticism of the document.

- If you write in that way and it would end up with the Ombudsman, there are a number of JO decisions that criticize such policy documents - where you blur the line (between managers and employees, editor's note) and in practice then limit freedom of expression for citizens, says Nils Function.

SVT has applied for Iréne Svenonius and Aida Hadzialic, who both decline interviews.