Through a study visit to Sweden, SSNM (Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers) analysed good practices for the protection of journalists and the conditions that contribute to a high level of media freedom. The experiences show that safety, dignified working conditions and strong professional organisations are key prerequisites for quality and independent journalism. 

Author: Mirko Trajanovski

“When Sweden dropped from third to fourth place on the global Media Freedom Index, this was taken very seriously in our country. A broad debate developed on what should be done to improve the situation in the media sector.”

Around fifteen journalists and media workers from the Western Balkans region, including the author of this text, greeted this statement by James Savage, chair of the media organisation Sveriges Tidskrifter, which represents magazines in Sweden, with a smile. He was the first speaker during the study visit to Stockholm, organised by the Fojo Media Institute as part of the project aimed at improving the safety, labour rights and resilience of journalists from the Western Balkans.

Yes, something that may sound like an anecdote in our context is seen in Sweden as a “red alert” for media freedom. This is probably quite expected in a country that, back in 1766, was the first in the world to adopt a law on freedom of the press and has a centuries-long tradition of protecting freedom of expression and access to information.

Today, Sweden is regularly at the top of the Reporters Without Borders media freedom ranking, and in the past five years it has always been either in third or fourth place in this global ranking. Such a status is not achieved only thanks to tradition; it requires constant and painstaking work, especially in an era of digitalisation of communications and the rapid growth of the use of artificial intelligence in journalism, but also in almost all spheres of social life.

Despite all the challenges, journalism manages to retain its primacy as a respected and important profession in the Scandinavian country. Perhaps the most illustrative figure is that 32% of Sweden’s residents are subscribed to at least one media outlet, regardless of whether it is a print or online edition.

One of the most important characteristics of the Swedish media system is the strong role of the public service broadcaster. It consists of three national public media outlets, each functioning as a separate company. These are Swedish Television (Sveriges Television (SVT)), Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio (SR)) and Utbildningsradion (UR), a media outlet for educational content. All three enjoy a high level of trust among citizens and play an important role in providing quality and impartial information of public interest. These media outlets are financed through citizens’ taxes. This is a relatively new model, and each resident of Sweden contributes around 200 euros per year for this purpose.

During our stay in Stockholm, we visited two media outlets-Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio) and Schibsted, the second-largest private media group in the country. We had the opportunity to discuss with experienced journalists, but also with people working in the areas of journalist safety and human resources. What is immediately noticeable is the high level of care for all aspects related to the protection of labour rights, safety and the health of media workers.

Schibsted, a media company whose portfolio includes television, print and online editions, has built an entire corporate culture around the well-being of journalists and other employees in the company. This is not only about caring for basic labour rights, but about a comprehensive process through which attention is paid to the entire working environment. Starting from the physical working conditions, through psycho-social aspects such as stress, excessive workload and work-life balance, all the way to the level of hygiene, whether the temperature is suitable and the level of noise in the open-plan workspace.

Their procedures provide for an annual inspection of working conditions. What does this mean in practice? Representatives of management and employees go through the offices and note whether some working conditions are inadequate, while also talking to all employees. In the process, most of them openly share a comment or remark about the working conditions, and measures are immediately taken to address them.

The example of Schibsted may seem like a distant future for the Macedonian and regional media space, but my personal opinion is that some media outlets in the country have the capacity to replicate some of these practices and, in this way, become a positive example for improving the working conditions of journalists.

ONLINE THREATS AMONG THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS FOR JOURNALISTS IN SWEDEN

In recent years, media outlets in Sweden have paid particularly great attention to the digital safety of journalists. One of the most serious problems is the online threats faced by media workers. According to the data shared with us by Savage, one third of women journalists in Sweden have reported online threats. In order to respond more quickly to such cases, a hotline has been established with the police, and there are special police officers trained to react and act in such cases.

In this context, the meeting with representatives of the Swedish Union of Journalists was particularly useful for us. This is a strong organisation that has existed for 125 years and currently has around 13,000 members. The union plays a key role in protecting freedom of expression and media freedom, as well as in the fight for journalists’ labour rights and professional integrity. The state has precise regulation that unequivocally guarantees labour rights, which is certainly a facilitating circumstance.

However, trade union battles for the protection of workers are never on pause. The journalists’ union emphasised that the biggest challenges today are stress and the overburdening of journalists, as well as hate speech, threats and violence directed at media workers. According to the union’s data, as many as 70% of journalists receive insults, while 4 out of 10 journalists have stopped reporting on specific topics because of serious threats to their safety.

All this information indicates that some of the problems faced by journalists are the same everywhere, both in Sweden and in Macedonia. The difference lies in the approach to solving them. In 2026, Macedonia was ranked 45th on the Media Freedom Index out of a total of 180 countries. I do not know how seriously this was taken in our country, but I do know that all of us together need to work on improving the situation. And no, I do not claim that we should catch up with Sweden. It is enough for all social actors to work sincerely on creating an impartial, objective and safe working environment for journalists. Because media freedom does not concern only journalists, but everyone who cares about the kind of country they live in.

This story was originally published by SSNM and is available at the following link

This text is part of the project “Key Challenges: Improving the Safety of Journalists, Labour Rights and Resilience in the Western Balkans”, supported by the Swedish Institute and implemented by the Fojo Media Institute (Sweden), together with the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers, the Center for Investigative Reporting (BiH), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro and AMPEK (Kosovo).