Ministermordet - RIB Bibliotek

case this symbolic action took on an
even deeper nature due to the actors'
personal closeness to the victim and her
family.
Crisis management
at central level
At departmental level the crisis was
handled with satisfactory routine sensitivity
derived from past experience of
several serious emergency situations
over a number of years. Crisis management
could be quickly commenced at
the three most closely affected departments
(the Cabinet Office, the Foreign
Office and the Department of Justice),
facilitated by the fact that most players
were on hand apart from the prime
minister initially. Crisis managers gathered
at short notice albeit meeting informally
at the Foreign Office at first.
In this department they realised the
double dimension immediately, whereupon
crisis management was mobilised in
parallel with external action (see below).
The special circumstances combining
the political nature of the event
with the emotional proximity to it presented
many actors in authority with
special circumstances for crisis management
and communication. The practical
experience garnered from earlier crisis
events necessitated a certain urgent
need for adjustment and improvisation.
This is "natural" per se since no crisis
event is like another and every event
requires its own specific practical mode
of action.
The speed with which crisis management
and communication were established
can be put down to the fact
that the central players in this drama
received information about the event
straight from the scene of the crime,
and to the fact that the media appeared
at very short notice to confirm the fact
of the occurrence. The first editors
were ringing up just ten minutes after
the stabbing, before the Department
had been told (apart from a few people).
This is a clear sign of the intensified
and compressed communication processes
taking place in today's society.
Crisis management was carried out
in Parliament too in connection with
the murder of Anna Lindh. A group
meeting was held principally for staff
when her death was made known and
a memorial service when Parliament
resumed work in the autumn.
Crisis communication
and media contacts
Crisis communication after the current
outrage took on other forms than in
earlier events. Press information and
the media contacts thus came about, as
far as government level is concerned,
amidst an environment of crisis and
mourning and took on a more immediate
form with the provision of directly
arranged information. Those responsible
for this information - not least the
prime minister himself - were deeply
affected personally, but many journalists
were also deeply emotionally affected at
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