Håll käften! Näthotet mot demokratin – en kvalitativ intervjustudie om näthatets konsekvenser för journalistiken

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to study the consequences of the swedish concept ”näthat” (hate on the internet hate), similar to the english hate speech, against swedish journalists and it's consequences for journalism as a whole in a democracy. How does it affect swedish journalists to have sensitive information about themselves and their families on public websites? How does threats from anonymous people affect them?   The study focus on the work ethics of journalism and it's function in a democratic society, how net hate affects it, and what consequences net hate may have on democracy.   The method of choice is a qualitative interview study, where the results from the interviews were analyzed against the theoretical science. The following people were chosen for the interviews: Helena Giertta, editor in chief at the newspaper Journalisten, Björn Wiman, head of culture at the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Ann Persson, reporter at Dagens Nyheter, Johan Everljung, legally responsible publisher at the Swedish Television in Umeå, and Josefine Holgersson, reporter at the Swedish Television in Umeå.   In short: The study concludes that net hate is a big threat against journalism, in the sense that it can, and is, being used as a tool to silent journalists and sources that speaks about sensitive subjects as feminism, immigrants and related matters. It is also clear that some groups are more frequently using it, such as xenophobic groups. The problem is therefore that many people, at the risk of being subject of net hate, decide not to participate in neither the public conversations in society or as sources in the media. As a consequence, some matters will not be featured and reported on, and that is very problematic not only for journalism as a whole, but also for democracy.