In a report on their website, Dagens Nyhetter (DN) said, "Dagens Nyheter received an official letter from the Indian ambassador in Stockholm Banashri Bose Harrison where she expresses ”disappointment” in the interview. She says that DN neglected to show the President the ”courtesy and respect” that he deserves as head of state."
The Swedish national daily Dagens Nyhetter has been reportedly warned by the government of India to retract sections of President Pranab Mukherjee's interview that mentioned the Bofors case and warned that his scheduled visit to Sweden was at risk of being cancelled.
In the interview, President Mukherjee was asked to comment on the Bofors scandal in India in the 1980s. To this he replied, "First of all - it is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it."
He further said, "I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, Indian army is using it. The so-called scandal which you talk of, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I’m afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity."
In a report on their website, Dagens Nyhetter (DN) said, "In a telephone call prior to the publication asked the ambassador expressly DN removing parts of the interview that was about Bofors. She warned that the state visit likely to be set."
The report further added, "Dagens Nyheter received an official letter from the Indian ambassador in Stockholm Banashri Bose Harrison where she expresses ”disappointment” in the interview. She says that DN neglected to show the President the ”courtesy and respect” that he deserves as head of state."
The text of a letter posted on the website reads, "It was both unprofessional and unethical on your part to include in the report an off the record correction made by the President after the interview had ended, about a slip of the tongue during the interview, (about mixing up Sweden and Switzerland several times) I am told at that point you sympathized with him and said it can happen to anyone. After that, to include the same in your report in a most condesconding manner as you have one does not befit the high standards normally expected from a leading newspaper or a professional journalist."
However, Editor-in-Chief Peter Wolodarski said that they couldn’t accept her demands. He said, "The president became engaged and was upset when Bofors was mentioned during a question regarding how we can avoid corruption today. Of course we had to tell our readers about his reaction.”
Peter Wolodarski further added, "I find the Ambassador’s reaction regretful. It is surprising that someone representing the world's largest democracies is trying to micromanage which questions we should ask a head of state, and which answers should be published.”
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