A blogging Foreign Minster

Carl Bildt, Swedish Foreign Minster, has been blogging for years. First in English on different European and international development. Becoming Foreign Minster his schedule change somewhat and in January he started blogging in Swedish. He has always been seen as a bit of pioneer when it comes to the Internet and the new media age. Back in the early 1990’s he was one of the first politicians to write and send out weekly newsletter. During his time as PM it’s also said the he was one of the first politicians to send an email to President Clinton in the White House. All in all this has made him quite a popular person in Sweden, regardless of the fact that he belongs to Moderaterna (the conservative party) and sometimes has a very different opinion on things.

With him blogging in Swedish suddenly everybody could read about what a Foreign Minster did. Something the public really liked, but not the journalists.

"Members of the government have a political mandate and everything they do therefore takes on a political dimension ... A member of the government is not just any 'chatter,'" a former newspaper editor, Bertil Torekull, wrote in a opinion piece published in Sweden's largest morning daily Dagens Nyheter.

He said that "Bildt's new unclear double role, as a private blogger and top representative of the government, has similarities" to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who appears on television each week for hours to express his points of view.

Torekull also lamented that Bildt does not stick to the traditional forums for a foreign minister - parliament, the foreign policy committee, or direct contact with the media.

The debate has been going on for a couple of weeks now and to me it seems like the old time/old school journalist are afraid of what Carl Bildt is doing. He’s talking and interacting with to the public without going through the press.

Also it might be a bit of a generation gap, like in so many other things when it comes to IT and the Internet. Peter Wolodarski, 29, an editorialist at Dagens Nyheter has another opinion in the debate defending Carl Bildt’s blog entries as "a welcome complement to the interviews and official commissions, not a substitute."