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<title> Protecting innocence or perpetuating ignorance </title>
Television is one of the most important sources to information in our Western society. Most people, including myself, agree that the health of a democratic society depends on the supply of accurate information given to the citizens, and that free media is the only way of achieving this. With this in mind I should not feel so ambivalent when pondering over whether certain programs on TV should be allowed to be broadcast. There is however a certain field within the genre of "reality television", which lately has become extremely popular here in Sweden as well as in other countries, which I feel very doubtful about; the programs that focus on real-life crimes. When watching Swedish shows like Efterlyst and Brottsvåg, or American equivalents like, Americas Most Wanted - America Fights back, L.A.P.D. (Los Angeles Police Department), Cops and Highway Patrol I often wonder if these shows do not do more harm than good. Is it really necessary to show reconstructed violence and actual car-chases in order for people to understand that these type of activities occur in society? Are these shows in fact an important tool when it comes to crime-prevention or do they merely lead to further desensitization?
As a matter of fact some of the programs containing "real-life" violence reconstruct crimes with the intention of giving assistance to the police by encouraging witnesses to come forward as in the case of TV 3's Efterlyst, which has solved many crimes after telephone calls from viewers. So long so good, but there are actually examples of horrible mistakes that have been made; where innocent people have been exposed as wanted criminals. I happen to think that this kind of informing is rather unpleasant, especially since the consequences can be so devastating if a mistake is made. Can a good cause justify a person's reputation being spoilt? I do not think so. The people responsible for these programs must be utterly careful and if they tend to neglect their responsibility it is the ultimate proof of how the programs tend to be more concerned with entertaining the viewers than assisting the police. 
On the other hand, there are shows in this category that are honest about their intentions; that to solely entertain. You see, from the reporting of crimes committed and wanted criminals, it is a short step for modern technology to go seeking out crime for itself. There are several shows, especially in the United States, where camera-teams accompany police patrol-cars, in search of criminal activity. Shows like Cops and Highway Patrol are simply providers of entertainment and they do not try to make a more serious attempt. How watching the police going about doing there business can be of any amusement remain a riddle to me, especially since many of the segments deal with domestic violence, threats and assault. 
Here by the way, I think, we have a perfect example of how television can come dangerously close to the border between faithful reporting and fiction. The boundaries between the real and the unreal become blurred and the risk, as I see it, is that people might get a false impression of the situation and the world. We should of course not take for granted that people in general are stupid or declare them incapable of sorting through the inputs of information given to them. My conviction is however that a constant flood of violent images distorts the audience's view of the world. The question whether to censor and exclude certain material is however a real tricky one. Some argue that it should not be allowed to conceal the reality of the world from the audience, but what "reality" are we talking about when discussing drama-documentaries? Since they have a way of simplifying and perverting reality it is hard to tell. 
I know several people that have become frightened out of their minds from watching Efterlyst or Svenska Mord, where the latter is a program that dramatize alleged events, most of them real brutal murders. Shows like this often give the viewer the impression that these kind of things occur on a more frequent basis then they actually do. Luckily, there are very few people that have a TV as their only window to reality. However there are unfortunately people who believe that programs like this provide viewers with a good way of obtaining information about what is going on in the world. The same people might say that shows like this help fight ignorance, intolerance and indifference by showing what goes on out there. I would think that these shows at their best give rise to debates about standards and I want to keep it unsaid whether they pander to the public interest in crime rather than serve the long arm of the law. In which case the so called docu-dramas have proven the medium's potentiality to "entertain" in other ways than merely through fiction and comedy.
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