Förfäras ej.pdf - Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap

news agency TT was established. Together with other government agencies wartime stocks of
certain imported items for the printing industry were stored. Emergency plans were made for
production of other imported items in Sweden and for evacuation of newspapers from danger
zones. The idea was that the Swedish public should be able to read all its usual newspapers and
weeklies even in wartime, although with a limited number of pages. Even certain theatres were
asked to make evacuation plans. For all the detailed planning, there were major deficiencies.
The problem of reserve electrical power for printing plants was never approached in a serious
manner. The cooperation with the Journalists´ Union became strained after the war game
JONAS in 1973. Some members of the Union criticised the plans for a wartime government
news agency, saying that this would hinder the competition of a free press. Other critics highlighted
the discrepancy between the small peacetime agency and its huge wartime organisation,
saying that it would take too long to mobilise in an emergency. Eventually a new government
commission was set up, which recommended to join the Preparedness Board with another
small authority, the Total Defence Information Committee, which had no wartime duties. The
wartime organisation was reduced. A press centre replaced the controversial news agency. There
the media could get access to the spokesmen of the government and the Supreme Command.
The new authority was named National Board of Psychological Defence (abbreviated SPF in
Swedish) and came into existence in 1985. The director general Per-Axel Landahl, who had
acquired the status of an independent government authority for the Preparedness Board, continued
as the first head of the new National Board. He recruited an energetic enlarged staff. In
addition to its war planning the new National Board had three main duties: research, information
preparedness and total defence information. Three major war games were carried out with
various parts of the wartime organisation, until it was mothballed after the end of the Cold
War. The radio monitoring section continued training until 1997.
From the beginning the Preparedness Board made regular opinion surveys focusing on the
will of the population to resist an armed aggression. Much effort was spent trying to prove that
the minor variations observed during the years were depending on political and military events
in and around Sweden. The new National Board continued the opinion polls, which however
lost much of their previous value after the Cold War.
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