Almedalen 2014. Cilla Benkö och Martin Schibbye intervjuas om hot mot journalister.

I think that's because you are more distinct personalities within ET media, primarily in TV but also in radio. You become a person that the listener or viewer feels they have a relationship with, and that also makes you a more obvious target. It also turns out that these threats make journalists censor themselves.

Yes, but that is the serious part of it. Of course, it's one thing to be threatened, and not many threats lead to actual attacks. But the scary thing about these threats and the climate we have is that people stop covering things, stop asking questions, or avoid certain topics altogether. That form of self-censorship threatens to impoverish Swedish journalism and thereby the Swedish democratic society. Questions that should be asked are not asked, I want to say.

The biggest threat to journalism? Well, it depends on how you look at it. To some extent, money, because the fewer journalists there are, the less journalism gets done. We see large cutbacks happening around the country, for example on many different newspapers. But when you are a journalist, it's often the case that those who pose the most serious threats are still people who are not fully aware, who have a mental illness and don't really know what they are doing. In the media climate and debate climate we have in Sweden today, where it's possible to express many opinions about people anonymously, and through what I actually like about social media also provides a space for many anonymous statements, anonymous attacks, anonymous violations that people who don't really know what they are doing because they are mentally ill can latch onto and develop, and the ball starts rolling. That is essentially the biggest threat as I see it. At the same time, almost half of journalists in Swedish media are threatened, and the situation in other parts of the world is truly alarming. Countries are criminalizing journalism, and that makes it both more important and more dangerous to be a journalist.

Yes, above all, we must continue to cover and come together to agree that it is important. When Ethiopia criminalizes journalism and criminalizes interviewing certain groups, we need to find other ways to interview those groups. When Egypt now locks up three Al Jazeera employees for having interviewed the Muslim Brotherhood, it is important to continue interviewing the Muslim Brotherhood.

It's too early to say, I think. I think there is still a somewhat shock-like experience after all the events of the last few years: with Swedish journalists, first me and Johan in Ethiopia, then Niklas and Magnus in Syria, and the murder of Nils Horner. At that point, it's a bit of a Gordian knot where many freelancers especially have great difficulty selling material from Iraq, South Sudan, or Afghanistan. And there was a significant under-coverage. If we talk about more journalism in reality, we have in the short term gotten less journalism.

Yes, I believe that together we first have to—when I say together, I mean both editors and journalists—see that we face a new situation. It is more dangerous than ever to be a journalist. And together compile the experiences that exist, perhaps agree on a number of courses we all should have taken: courses in kidnapping, digital security, medical training, perhaps how stress and trauma affect the body, maybe also discuss bureaucracy, discuss routines. Not just talking about the fee with an editor when you call as a freelancer, but how the job should be done, what risks are involved in the job, how have I thought about my risk analysis—to raise safety awareness throughout the industry.

Yes, it is exactly three years ago today that I and Johan were shot and captured in the Ogaden in the Ethiopian desert. And of course, it is a special day in many ways, and of course, I am glad to have survived it and to be able to stand here and try to do something with those experiences.