Dagens Nyheter’s tv critic Johan Croneman brings up a relevant question about the political tv show “Folkvald”.
“Does no-one at SVT have a problem with David Batra making political tv ahead of the election and that his wife, Anna Kinberg Batra is a candidate to the parliament for the Moderate party? And by the way, again: Why doesn’t the presentation reveal that Batra is employed by the PR company his wife runs?”
David Batra denies being employed by Klar Kommunikation, according to an article in Resumé but yesterday his presentation as “creative advisor” was still live on the PR agency’s webpage. However, his presentation has now been taken off the page, also the English version that was live at the time Resumé published its article.
– It’s not good that the information was on the site. The idea was that I should come up with ideas and be part of certain product launches. But I haven’t been employed and never done anything for them.
Anna Kinberg Batra, famous for once stating (correctly) that citizens in Stockholm are smarter than other Swedes, will not give a direct answer if her husband has ever received any remuneration from Klar Kommunikation.
– It is possible. But offhand, I don’t think so.
Here is the presentation that has been taken off the site:
David Batra
David Batra – kreativ rådgivare, är en av Sveriges mest populära komiker och föreläsare. Han har skrivit och medverkat i flera TV-serier för Sveriges Television. Han är dessutom civilekonom från Lunds Universitet med inriktning på varumärken.
David Batra
David Batra is one of Sweden’s most popular comedians. He has been a keynote speaker on creativity, presentation skills and humour in corporate life at numerous special events hosted by Fortune 500 companies like Ericsson, Unilever, Vodafone and Xerox. Mr Batra holds a Master’s degree in marketing from the University of Lund and he is creative advisor to Klar Kommunikation.
I really don’t know what to make of this, but two things are for sure.
1) Had they been candid about these connections from the start, they wouldn’t have had to worry now. Transparency has its benefits.
2) What’s the point in taking information off a web page in the midst of a crisis? Ever heard of Google chache?
Also, Viggo Cavling has another angle on the story.