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TV4 suspends journalist after bribery allegation

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
TV4 suspends journalist after bribery allegation

Swedish television channel TV4 has suspended a journalist amid suspicion that the man had received money from other sources to make certain reports.

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The journalist, who is employed on a freelance basis by TV4, said that he had been given money by relatives of an individual who has been found guilty of serious drugs offences, but that the cash was not intended as payment for making a news report.

"Obviously there was never any intention that this would be published," he told TV4's news programme, Nyheterna.

Instead, he claims that he was paid the money for work performed outside of his job with TV4.

The matter came to light in the summer when TV4 was contacted by a man who said he had evidence that the journalist was demanding money from criminals.

At a meeting on Wednesday with TV4 the man showed video recordings and text messages and offered to sell them to the channel. He said he wanted the journalist to be fired and for the family who paid money to him to be given 400,000 kronor in compensation.

"On top of that the person wanted a considerable amount for the material," said Göran Ellung, TV4's programme director.

The channel refused and instead began an investigation into the matter. The journalist will be suspended from his duties with TV4 until the inquiry reaches a conclusion.

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