Janus Engel, who has just finished his internship at Politiken, has been caught in a media debate about his project: “Life by the Edge of the Water“.
It all began before summer, when Janus went to the island Langeland to do a one-month reportage as his final story while interning at Politiken.
Janus went to Langeland, the poorest municipality in Denmark to do stories about the people, who live in one of the so-called outskirts of Denmark.
The front page of the section in Politiken,
where the pictures and stories
by Janus Engel was publsihed.
On the 16th of August Politiken published Janus’ pictures and stories over seven pages in their Sunday edition.
Straight after the publication Politiken discovered a record high number of readers’ complaints. The people from Langeland felt that the pictures and stories were too negative and didn’t show the complete picture of the life at the island.
The picture of a young farmer in his stable was one,
which was the reason for the complaints
since it shows a dirty stable.
As a result of the complaints, Politiken arranged a public meeting at Langeland, where Janus Engel and picture editor in chief, Thomas Borberg, met with the inhabitants of the island. At the meeting Thomas Borberg urged the people at Langeland to make their own picture story from the Island – then Politiken will publish their pictures in the paper.
You can read more (in Danish) about the debate at these links:
Poltiken’s article about the public meeting.
The mayor of Langeland about why he doesn’t like the series.
Media experts about why they find it ok to publish the series.