This is odd. Two days ago, Thomas Hartman started out as new press secretary for Barbro Holmberg, the Swedish Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy. Apparently Hartman has been publishing a controversial blog in which he has been posting some very harsch comments about media.
Västerbottens-Kuriren wrote yesterday that Hartman had written, among other things, that people should “stop reading the crap”.
– I think it looks like there are small chances he will do a good job as press secretary. As press secretary you are supposed to work for openness and smooth contacts between media and the minister, said Stig Fredrikson, chairman of the Publicists’ Club in a comment to VK.
When I searched for Hartman’s blog last evening it looked like it had been closed down. It could be (since VK made the usual mistake of not writing the blog URL in the article) that the blog in question is actually to be found somewhere else, but I find that highly unlikely.
In my view it looks like his entire blog has been deleted because the statements he made does not sit well in his new job. So much for openness and transparency from the government…
Footnote: Some of the headlines from Hartman’s blog can be found at Blogwalk. Unfortunately there are no cached versions of the blog in Google.
Update: VK writes that Hartman closed down his blog after VK had contacted Anna Helsén, Press Secretary to Prime Minister.