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It was in mid-September of this year that the world’s most famous climate activist, Greta Thunberg, was invited to Dagens Nyheter to speak about the media and the climate crisis. He then directed strong criticism of DN and other media for not treating the climate issue as a major and very serious crisis.
The idea then appeared within DN’s editorial office: Why not let Greta Thunberg be the guest editor for one day and get involved in the decision of the newspaper’s management?
Editor-in-Chief Peter Wolodarski He accepted the proposal and contacted Greta Thunberg, who said yes.
– The most common criticism from our readers over the last year has been that we don’t take the weather seriously enough. We want to be better at illuminating this issue from a variety of perspectives, one of the most important challenges we face as journalists. This is one way to do it and we are curious what we will learn from your participation, says Peter Wolodarski.
Greta Thunberg in DN’s editorial office along with editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski.
Photo: Roger Turesson
It will be early December that Greta Thunberg will be the editor-in-chief of an issue of Dagens Nyheter.
– I hope this can influence DN and other media to treat the climate crisis as the great crisis that it really is, says Greta Thunberg.
Have you had time to figure out what DN it should contain on the day you are editor-in-chief?
– I don’t think there are so many opinion texts and descriptions of disasters, rather many reviews that show what reality is like, where we are now and that deeply explain the climate crisis. And interviews with people who have a lot of knowledge, for example researchers, says Greta Thunberg.
this is not the first time a well-known opinion leader acts as a guest editor for a newspaper. Perhaps most notable is when the singer and leader of the rock group U2, Bono, edited the British magazine The Independent in 2006 for a day. This led to a classic cover in red, designed by artist Damien Hirst, with the headline “NO NEWS TODAY” and dealt with the AIDS epidemic that later affected several African countries.
Is there a risk that DN’s independence will be questioned when a stranger comes in to participate and decide on the newspaper’s content?
– It will ask some legitimate questions, but it will be clear to readers that this is a special project for one day, says Peter Wolodarski and continues:
– Greta Thunberg will work together with a group of DN editors on the concrete ideas, and the journalistic work will be carried out according to current professional routines. We will report very openly how everything is going. It will be an exciting project to follow.
What do you say to those who wonder if this isn’t just a hack for a day?
– For us, this is part of a larger effort to journalistically evaluate the climate issue. We will dedicate more resources to inform about it in everyday life and we will also review our advertising policy.
– We want to be inspired by this and treat the climate crisis as the crucial problem that it is. It affects us, our children and grandchildren, and it is the magazine’s job to continually reflect it with serious, knowledge-based, all-encompassing journalism, says Peter Wolodarski.
English version: Greta Thunberg will be editor-in-chief of the leading Swedish newspaper, for one day
