The documentary film “Estonia: The find that changes everything” was based on new and illegal dives at the wreck of Estonia, and showed a hole in Estonia’s hull.
Conspiracy theories gained new momentum
The film fueled conspiracy theories that Estonia may have been targeted and deliberately sunk. The film was awarded, among other things, the Stora Journalistpriset.
But in the new SVT documentary Estonia and the myths, one of the former members of the prize jury chooses to distance himself from the decision.
– I repent. With what I understand today, I think it is unfortunate that I was involved in highlighting a film that was obviously misleading and was not a journalistic feat, but on the contrary, something even perhaps false, says Patrik Hadenius, publishing director at Norstedts.
According to Patrik Hadenis, he has now realized that Discovery’s Estonia film was “deliberately false”. He also tells SVT that the film spreads a type of conspiracy theory that even becomes a threat to trust in democracy and journalism.
Others in the journalist prize jury, on the other hand, are adamant that it was right to praise the film.
– The jury had all the information there was. Based on it, they felt that this hole was worth praising as this year’s revelation, says Jonas Bonnier, chairman of the Stora journalist prize.
The hole in Estonia was ripped open by the rock
In Discovery’s 2020 Estonia film, it was claimed that the seabed that Estonia landed in consisted solely of soft sea mud. However, this claim was based on a distorted graphic, according to the experts that SVT spoke to. The graphics were distorted by making the Estonia ship significantly smaller than in reality, and therefore in this graphic did not reach down to the harder seabed.
The creator of Discovery’s film, Henrik Evertsson, writes in an email to SVT that they admit that the graphics in the Discovery film were incorrect, but that they “all this time have welcomed a broad debate”.
Footnote: The authors of the Discovery film have declined to be interviewed by SVT. Several other members of the journalist prize jury have also been contacted by SVT’s reporters for comment, but these too have declined to be interviewed.