Al Jazeera 360 pushes back against Swedish claims film is ‘dangerous’

The Al Jazeera 360 documentary entitled Behind Closed Doors focuses on families who have had children removed by European authorities.

The team behind an Al Jazeera 360 documentary has rejected claims by the Swedish prime minister that a film about child protection laws in Europe is “dangerous”.

The three-part investigative documentary Behind Closed Doors, produced by Al Jazeera 360 – a video-on-demand platform that is part of the Al Jazeera Media Network – follows families from various backgrounds and nationalities who have faced the traumatic experience of having their children forcibly removed by social authorities in Norway, Sweden, Germany and Luxembourg.

On November 10, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson likened the documentary to the so-called LVU campaign, a misinformation campaign that gained traction on social media in 2022 that suggested Swedish authorities were kidnapping children from Muslim families.

But Awad Joumaa, head of originals at Al Jazeera 360, said the attacks on the film were “misleading”.

“Al Jazeera 360 emphasises that the series was developed to explore a complex social issue affecting families across northern Europe,” a statement from Al Jazeera 360 said. “Behind Closed Doors presents diverse families from various backgrounds and nationalities who have faced the traumatic experience of having their children forcibly removed by social authorities. In some cases, children were not only separated from their parents but were also split up and placed in different cities, leaving parents unaware of their children’s whereabouts and with no access to them.”