Investigative journalism in Sweden A not so noticeable noble art

Swedish journalistic traditions are mixed between classical liberal ideas on the press as a fourth estate and social responsibility ideas of necessary relationships between the political system and the media system. Historically, the prospects for independent journalism could not possibly be better. Sweden was the first country in the world to include a Freedom of Information Act in its constitution as early as 1766, and since then freedom of expression and freedom of infor-mation have been embedded in the Swedish constitution (Hultén, 2004). On the other hand, the Swedish media system can broadly be described as a democratic-corporatist model, with a party-press system and public service broadcast media system as distinctive features, at least until the deregulation and liberalization era of the 1990s (Hallin and Mancini, 2004). Accordingly, there also exist parallel perceptions of journalistic values and news reporting norms in Sweden. While the legal liberal heritage encourages independent and objective journalism with a critical approach, the idea of social responsibility underlines the need for balanced news, reflecting diverging perspectives and opinions in society. These contradictory norms still affect most journalistic practices, even if the recent market-orientation of the Swedish media system has, to a considerable extent, undermined public service perspec-tives. Furthermore, the global process of further commercialization of the media certainly imposes new challenges for serious news reporting and the watchdog function of journalism. Investigative journalism is expansive and risky compared to infotainment formats and recycling press releases (Allan, 2005; Hamilton, 2004). Against this historical background, the state of contemporary investigative journalism in Sweden is summarized. The main questions are: How do different actors in the Swedish society perceive investigative journalism today? To wha