SVT was important. It was important back in the days when there were no independent TV stations and almost all visual entertainment was funnelled through a small B&W box or the cinema. It is not needed now.
Since moving to Sweden I have no problem paying my taxes, taxes which were considerably higher than that of my home country. Why? Because I actually saw that they were used efficiently and fairly. I am happy to pay for the military, schools, civil bureaucracy, police, sewage, recycling, health care, prisons, road maintenance and all the myriad of others. These are absolutely necessary for a functional society. I'm even happy to pay for a national radio channel for the purposes of broadcasting news and emergency warnings - which is already paid for by my taxes.
Yet I do not own a TV. Quite frankly Swedish national TV programs are poor at the best of times and most of what's shown nowadays holds no interest for me. So because I don't own a TV I am subjected to yearly heckling by the licence people, at least three sequential calls, who refuse to take me off their call list and quite frankly accuse me of being a liar when I repeatedly state I don't own a TV.
Every.
Bloody.
Year.
Now I don't like it when I'm judged guilty before proven innocent. Neither do I like being forced to pay for a service which I don't use, but one which I will never use, and one which has no place in modern society where almost 95% of media is commercially funded and arguably has just as good (or bad) standards.
The legal precedence this sets is insane. What is next? Oh, you have eyes so every visual media company can now charge you for possessing the 'ability' to see their material. Why is there no outcry against it just as we did with SOPA?
If SVT wants money for internet viewing then let them set up a pay-wall like every other company.
I love this country, I think it does a hell of a lot right, but SVT has just crossed the line of social justice. I refuse to pay for media that I don't like and don't use. Media in this day and age is not a limited resource.
You should all think about doing the same. I am more than willing to go to prison over this, and if several hundred others followed the government would literally lose hundreds of millions on court time, public defenders, prisoner maintenance costs, single parent family support and one hell of a lot of good will from the people. In addition Sweden would be ridiculed by the rest of the world, and I say, justly so.
Wobble on as you like SVT, but don't tax my internet connection. I already pay for that out of my own pocket, you damn thieves.
