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Intentional Journalism Owes a Debt to the Dead in a Swedish Mass Shooting
The majority of those who died were immigrants to Sweden, and the debt is simple: telling their stories in a way that counters common stereotypes about immigrants and refugees in Sweden, and across Europe.
Feb 21, 2025
As the mass murder that took the lives of 10 innocent people in Sweden disappears from the international news map, there remains a debt to the dead that will likely go unpaid.
The majority of those who died were immigrants to Sweden, and the debt is simple: telling their stories and placing their lives in a context that pushes back against the common stereotypes about immigrants and refugees in Sweden, and across Europe.
Details are now beginning to emerge about the victims in Örebro. Of the 10 who died in Örebro, seven were women and three were men. Eight were born outside the country. But there is so much more. There are details that speak to the mundane, everyday lives of immigrants and refugees—stories that are largely ignored by the media in favor of more sensational topics such as crime, terrorism, and failed integration. Topics that do not reflect the overwhelming majority of people who have immigrated to Sweden and Europe. People who have often fled violence and persecution in search of a quiet, ordinary, and anonymous life.
To not recognize their everyday lives or to refuse to acknowledge their efforts to integrate into their new societies is to subject them to a second form of violence: the symbolic murder of their humanity.
Let’s be honest. The decision to present immigrants and refugees in one way rather than another is both deliberate and conscious. And let’s not deny the cruel irony that immigrants, routinely smeared as “lazy,” “violent,” and “incapable of integrating,” were murdered by an "ethnic Swede" who himself lived an unintegrated life as a “loner.”
Immigrants like Bassam, a father of two who came to Sweden from Syria. He worked making bread and preparing food, and on days when he had Swedish language classes, he would start work at 4:00 or 5:00 am, attend his language class, then return to work and stay late.
Immigrants like Salim, a refugee from Syria who had become a Swedish citizen and was studying to become a healthcare worker. He was engaged and had just bought a house. His last act, as he lay dying after being shot, was to call his mother and ask her to take care of his fiancée.
Immigrants like Elsa, who arrived in Sweden in 2015 from Eritrea and was also studying to become an assistant nurse. She was already employed at a nursing home and worked as a contact person for disabled residents in the municipality. She wanted to have two jobs to earn enough money for her husband to get a residence permit. They had four children.
These were victims of an act of violence that ended their physical presence in this world. To not recognize their everyday lives or to refuse to acknowledge their efforts to integrate into their new societies is to subject them to a second form of violence: the symbolic murder of their humanity. We are regularly told that immigrants to Europe from “other” parts of the world do not share our “values.” Yet, in the case of the mass murder in Sweden, we see victims who worked—often with multiple jobs—to integrate and create a better life. In short, they shattered the stereotype of the isolated, lazy immigrant unwilling to engage with Swedish society.
In the days (and now weeks) after the mass murder in Örebro, media in Sweden have been telling the stories of some of these immigrants and their families. About their lives and their losses. This is important progress in Sweden… while media outside of the country have overwhelmingly ignored the dead. But it also raises the question: Should it really take being killed in a mass murder to have your story told?
There are parts of the world that receive media coverage in Europe and the U.S. almost exclusively when there is war, famine, or natural disasters. This links these regions with crisis in the minds of news consumers, and it is a connection that is hard to break. The very idea that people in these regions have everyday concerns, worries, and joys like we do at home is very rarely addressed. Similarly, in domestic media, there are segments of society that are covered primarily when something negative or terrible happens. This creates a similar mental map for news consumers, overshadowing all other perspectives.
In journalism and media research, the concept of “framing” suggests that how an issue or group is presented (rhetorically or visually) in news affects how that issue or group is perceived and understood. But what is not shown is also part of “framing.” What is omitted in the presentation and analysis of society is also an editorial decision.
This should also be seen as part of the debt owed to many of those killed in Örebro. To recognize the power of media to shape not only what people think about but also how they think about it, and to present the everyday lives of those who come to Sweden and Europe not only when linked to tragedy and violence.
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'Shame': Sweden to Start New Year With Controversial Wolf Hunt
"The Swedish government since 2010 has been blatantly disregarding the wolf's special protection status, allowing a yearly licensed quota hunt and thereby breaking E.U. law," one campaigner said.
Jan 01, 2025
Sweden is set to start a controversial wolf hunt on Thursday that could see its declining wolf population fall by another 8%.
The country has authorized the killing of 30 of the nation's 375 wolves—or five entire families—in a move that conservationists say is illegal under European Union law. Ultimately, the Swedish government wants to nearly halve the minimum number of wolves for "favorable conservation status" from 300 to 170.
'Imagine... the outcry if this were Sri Lanka killing leopards, or Botswana lions, both much trickier animals to live with," U.K. environmentalist Ben Goldsmith wrote on social media. "Shame, shame on Sweden."
"If Sweden, one of the richest countries in the world with a population of 10.5 million people, can't accept a population of 375 wolves, what hope is there for the planet's biodiversity?"
Under the Council of Europe's Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, or Bern Convention, countries must preserve the populations of protected species so that they remain above a sustainable level. However, Magnus Orrebrant, the chair of the Swedish Carnivore Association, toldThe Guardian that E.U. law has not meant much for Sweden's wolves.
"The Swedish government since 2010 has been blatantly disregarding the wolf's special protection status, allowing a yearly licensed quota hunt and thereby breaking E.U. law," Orrebrant said. "We filed a formal complaint to the E.U. commission, leading to an infringement procedure against Sweden, as yet to no avail."
Excessive wolf hunting has been a problem in Sweden for decades, and was part of the reason that the country had no breeding population at all between 1966 and 1983. In addition, increased hunting slashed the population by nearly 20% between 2022 and 2023.
Beyond licensed hunts, Sweden's wolf population also faces pressure from poachers, according to conservation group Revolution Rov, with DNA evidence suggesting that up to 80 wolves are killed illegally each year.
"In many license hunting decisions on wolves in recent years, it has been argued that if legal hunting is allowed, illegal hunting will disappear, but that has not happened at all... Instead, even more wolves have had to die," the group wrote in a petition against 2024's hunt.
The group also wrote that Sweden's wolf population is genetically vulnerable, with many mating pairs being closely related. For the population to remain healthy, it needs an influx of new genes from wolves migrating from Finland or Russia, but these wolves are often killed before they can pair off.
Wildlife advocates outside of Sweden also criticized the 2025 hunt.
"I believe that one of the hallmarks of human progress is learning to coexist with other species that our ancestors once feared," wrote Wildlife Trusts CEO Craig Bennett on social media. "And sadly, it often feels like we still live in the Dark Ages."
Ecologist and conservationist Alan Watson Featherstone wrote: "I really do despair about humanity—we are such a selfish species. If Sweden, one of the richest countries in the world with a population of 10.5 million people, can't accept a population of 375 wolves, what hope is there for the planet's biodiversity?"
However, Sweden is not alone in Europe in its hostility to wolves. The Bern Convention in December accepted an E.U. proposal to lower the wolf's status from "strictly protected" to "protected." The decision followed complaints from farmers that the continent's rebounding wolf population was harming livestock, but conservationists say that allowing the killing of wolves will threaten the species in a vulnerable moment and is not the solution to livestock killings.
"The wolf is still endangered in many parts of Europe, and weakening its protection will only lead to further conflict and threaten its recovery," Ilaria Di Silvestre, regional director of policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, toldThe Associated Press in December.
The Bern Convention's decision, which will go into effect on March 7, will clear the way for the European Commission to alter its habitats directive for wolves to reflect their higher numbers in the mountains and forests of Scandinavia and Western Europe, which will then make it easier to approve more wolf killings.
"We are very critical to the path that the E.U. is now taking, downgrading the protection status of the wolf," Orrebrant told The Guardian. "If the E.U. follows up the latest Bern Convention decision by changing the wolf's protection status in the habitat directive, the result will be very negative not only for the wolves, but for all wildlife in Europe."
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Tesla Shareholders Approve $45 Billion Pay Package for Musk, Reject Pro-Union Measure
"It's an order of magnitude more egregious than the most egregious ever dared to ask for," an expert said of the pay package. The vote comes after Tesla fired thousands of workers.
Jun 14, 2024
Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a pay package for CEO Elon Musk worth more than $45 billion while rejecting a pro-union measure that sought to prevent the company from interfering with worker organizing.
The shareholder vote on Musk's pay package, the exact value of which fluctuates with the company's share price, was a response to a January court ruling that voided the package because the Tesla board that had issued it had too many personal and financial ties to Musk. The CEO's supporters expect the vote to strengthen his legal case for the money.
The unsuccessful pro-union proposal, which would have required the company to respect workers' right to assemble, had been brought by Scandinavian investors acting in solidarity with Tesla mechanics in Sweden who've been on strike since October. Tesla pays less than other carmakers and Musk has been openly anti-union, even saying that he disagrees with the idea of unions.
The shareholder votes came after the company fired 14,000 workers—more than 10% of its global staff—in April and then made further cuts shortly thereafter. More Perfect Union, a nonprofit newsroom, drew attention to the layoffs in reacting to news of the shareholder votes.
Calling the pay package "outrageous," the newsroom wrote on social media that "the vote allows Musk to further enrich himself, even as Tesla falters as a company and fires thousands of workers."
BREAKING: Tesla shareholders just voted to give Elon Musk $56 billion.
This outrageous pay package is over $55 billion more than the CEO of Google gets.
The vote allows Musk to further enrich himself, even as Tesla falters as a company and fires thousands of workers.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) June 13, 2024
Other organizations also voiced their disapproval at the size of Musk's pay package.
"It's an order of magnitude more egregious than the most egregious ever dared to ask for," Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy nonprofit, said of the pay package, The Christian Science Monitor reportedon Thursday.
The $45 billion pay package would come in the form of Tesla stock, taking Musk's ownership stake in the company from about 13% to roughly 20.5%, The New York Timesreported.
"Working class people with pensions invested in Tesla could pay for the richest man on Earth to get even richer," More Perfect Unionwrote on social media last week.
Musk's contempt for unions is not just rhetorical: He is making a push in the courts to defang the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an effort that would "gut" fundamental New Deal workers' rights legislation, according toThe Nation.
At a plant in Buffalo, Tesla management fired dozens of workers last year after one of them informed Musk of plans to organize a union. Last month, the NLRB filed a complaint against Tesla for interfering with union organizing at the Buffalo plant.
There's a strong union tradition in Scandinavia, where many workers from other sectors have acted in solidarity with the striking mechanics. "Postal workers refused to deliver license plates for Tesla cars, dockers to unload Teslas from ships, and cleaners to scrub the firm’s showrooms," The Economistreported.
Union leaders see the strike as a way of preserving the "Swedish Model" that has undergirded the country's relative high quality of life and shared prosperity for decades. But organized labor is not yet as strong in emerging green industries, leading to concerns about low wages and meager benefits, the Timesreported.
Thursday's shareholder votes for the pay package and against the pro-union proposal were both lopsided, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed, indicating strong support for Musk's agenda.
In another Musk-influenced vote, shareholders agreed to move the Tesla's corporate registration to from Delaware to Texas—an effort to avoid the Delaware court system, which Musk believes has treated the company unfairly. The pay package case will remain in Delaware courts.
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