Nils Bergman is perhaps best known for being the man behind the podcast The Trial Podcast. Since 2017, the podcast has attracted hundreds of thousands of listeners who are interested in true crime in general and Swedish crime cases in particular.
Over the years, the Trial Podcast has, among other things, made episodes about the case with Tove in Vetlanda, Abbe Blattelitothe murder of Wilma and the Cyanide Woman.
Nils Bergman has previously faced criticism from several relatives of crime victims who, among other things, say that it felt like they were forced to relive their traumas when the death of their relatives has become entertainment, something that SVT noticed.
Nils Bergman. Image source: Acast
Filter magazine writes about a mother who says that Nils Bergman “cut in the sound of a crying baby to further strengthen her testimony about when her daughter was thrown down a cliff”.
Harsh criticism of the Motiv podcast
Nils Bergman is current with the true crime podcast Motiv – and it too is met with harsh criticism. Alexander Dominici write in Swedish daily newspaper that the podcast is a “failure within the true crime genre”.
The journalist Adam Swanell – also he at Svenska Dagbladet – he also totally saw the Motiv podcast. This after they try to clean up in their special “To create a monster”. Ulf Olsson.
Ulf Olsson was convicted of the murders of 10-year-old Helen and 26-year-old Jannica. He was sentenced to closed forensic psychiatric care with a special discharge examination. He died in January 2010. Image source: Johan Nilsson/TT Bild
“One of Sweden’s biggest podcasts is trying in its new series to clean up the double murderer Ulf Olsson. It’s a journalistic disaster that cannot be surpassed,” writes Svanell in SvD.
Even the magazine Filter sees Motiv at the ankles. In a review, the journalist writes Leon Voss Gustavsson that “The creators behind Motiv have made a series of unethical podcasts. But their latest series is completely untrue”.
The true crime podcast Motiv has been met with massive criticism. Image source: Acast
The podcaster and debater Kajjan Andersson also directs massive criticism at Motiv.
“It needs to be said again: this is not harmless entertainment that you either like or not. It’s material packaged as documentary content and as journalistic scrutiny (it’s neither). Besides, it’s HUGELY distasteful to fabricate improbable stories on any basis about how convicted murderers are actually set up and to also make obviously innocent people suspicious around victims and investigations, it is a loosening of everything that good journalistic etiquette is about,” she writes on Instagram.
Several of Kajjan’s followers also write upset about their reactions after listening to the podcast.
“Among the worst crap I’ve heard so far,” writes one follower.
“This is so disgusting! Only heard the first one and it is so unbelievably treacherous and manipulative. In fact it meets all the criteria for a conspiracy theory. And that one could have become ‘a revelation’ and spread on a serious (?) platform is extremely serious. Thank you for continuing to raise this!”, writes another of Kajjan’s followers.
On her Instagram, Kajjan also posts a conversation she had with Motiv where she questions why critical comments have been deleted
“I have my Instagram at my disposal and for me it is idiotic to keep a lot of comments from people begging and begging and pleading with others not to listen because this series is ‘a disaster’ etc”, the response reads, among other things .