Jan Guillou - Swedish Tabloid Naming Guillou A "secret Agent For The Soviet"

Swedish Tabloid Naming Guillou A "secret Agent For The Soviet"

During a five-year period starting at 1967 Jan Guillou had a series of meetings with KGB representatives. In October 2009 the Swedish news tabloid Expressen told this story under the headline "Guillou secret agent for Soviet Union". The Swedish security service Säpo at the time knew of the contacts from Guillou's colleague Arne Lemberg, who suspected the activities could be illegal.

According to Jan Guillou his intention was to expose the KGB espionage journalistically through a scoop based on the activities he was being exposed to and the discussions he had with his KGB contact Jevgenij Gergel. One of the journalists who wrote the articles later commented that he believed Guillou's explanation, ”I do not doubt one word of what he has said”.

Guillou received payment from KGB for written reports on Swedish politics, and Expressen points to this fact when defending its choice to refer to Guillou as a secret agent”. Former KGB Colonel and defector Sergey Tretyakov characterised Guillou as a "classic agent". "Because he accepted money and, worst of all, signed receipts, there's no question about it. The handling of him could be a schoolbook example at the KGB school in Moscow". Espionage prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand wrote to PON that "Agent and spy are not synonymous ideas .... an agent does not have to commit acts of espionage. An agent can perform assignments for his handler without crossing the line to what is prosecutable."

Säpo at the time was skeptical towards Lemberg's report and commented that it found nothing illegal in a newspaper man writing an article based on public information and delivering it to Jevgenij Gergel. The statute of limitation prevents new charges from being filed today.

The public Ombudsman of the Swedish Press, Yrsa Stenius, later concluded that Expressen's presentation of facts had been an example of irresponsible journalism. According to her, Expressen had not backed up its frontpage assertion, that "Jan Guillou Secret Soviet Agent", despite the fact that this had caused "massive" damage to Guillou's reputation. Stenius's conclusion caused controversy, and a number of newspaper leader writers demanded that she resign her post.

On 1 June 2010 The Swedish Press Council acquitted Expressen of wrongdoing. Expressen denies having claimed that Guillou was guilty of the crime of ”espionage”, and PON agrees. The frontpage and headline assertions (”Guillou Secret Soviet Agent”, ”Confesses KGB mission”, ”Recruited by chief of espionage”) according to PON ”do not have well defined meanings”. PON was also satisfied that the factual details of the story were fully covered in the text of the articles which also included Guillou's own account of the events.