Swedish National Radio communicates on Coronavirus in many languages. Except in Syriac.

SÖDERTÄLJE, Sweden — Swedish radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio broadcasted news on the Coronavirus and the preventive measures the Swedish government imposed, in many different languages of the several peoples living in Sweden but not in Syriac. Because of the possible health implications for the population as a whole, Sveriges Radio broadcasted the important news and measures in many different languages to reach as many of its citizens as possible, e.g. the ones who only recently arrived in Sweden or citizens who don’t sufficiently master the Swedish language.

Sweden has a large number of originally Syriac citizens (Chaldeans-Arameans-Assyrians). The SVT radio broadcast was transmitted in Arabic, Kurdish, Persian and other languages but not in Syriac. The number of Syriacs in Sweden totals 150.000 making it one of the larger ethnic groups in Sweden. This raises the question of why the news was not also broadcasted in Syriac.

In a comment to Syriac TV channel Suroyo TV, Syriac politician Aday Beth Kinne said that he will raise the question to the relevant Swedish institutions.

Aday Beth Kinne also pointed to a recent and similar case in which the municipality of the city of Södertälje, 35 kilometers southwest of Stockholm, put up billboards in the original languages of its citizens except in Syriac. More than half of the population of the municipality of Södertälje has a foreign background and the municipality of Södertälje has a population of about 99.000 of which a third is Syriac.