Reporters Without Borders Sweden Ad Censored Itself in Time for New Year Espionage Act Amendment

On January 1st, a new Espionage Act came to effect in Sweden. An amendment to the constitution that criminalises whistle blowers, leading to censorship and threatening free speech as we know it. To shine a light on this alarming development, Reporters Without Borders Sweden launched a self-censoring campaign.

On the brink of the new year, they collaborated with Sweden’s largest daily newspaper and agency Åkestam Holst NoA, creating a full-page ad that demonstrated how objective journalism is literally fading away.

The ad, featured in the December 31st edition of the paper, was partially printed with a specially designed CO2-sensitive ink. So just in time for January 1st, the ad had begun to censor itself.

Making this together with the people at Dagens Nyheter and Bold Printing took its share of blood, tears and ink, says Joakim Khoury, creative director at Åkestam Holst NoA.

Previous collaborations between Reporters Without Borders Sweden and Stockholm-based Agency Åkestam Holst NoA include Billboards Without Borders, and recent Gold-winner from Eurobest, Death Sentence.