TeliaSonera targeted for its operations in totalitarian countries

SVT’s controversial investigative journalism program Uppdrag granskning took aim at TeliaSonera’s (OMX: TLSN) business practises in former Soviet Union. The details from the document were made available earlier on in Wednesday and the program aired this evening. It is currently available from SVT’s website. The show describes individual cases where people have been spied on either through eavesdropping or through mobile phone tracking and have faced repercussions.

A major part of TeliaSonera’s profits come from countries such as Azerbaidzhan, Belarus and Kazakhstan. TeliaSonera is active in these countries mostly via investments in local operators either directly or indirectly.

TeliaSonera’s CEO Lars Nyberg said in an interview with SVT that the company needs to follow the laws of the countries it operates in. He is well aware that countries may, and sometimes do, demand and use personal information from TeliaSonera network in investigations of various types but stressed that a functioning mobile network is very important in increasing communication. Mr. Nyberg also reminded that one individual operator can only do so much and that basically every country has laws enabling such spying in some cases.

While most people seem to be taking a practical approach, certain institutional owners were appalled by the report. Insurance company Folksam in particular appears to be steaming. Since government is a major investor in TeliaSonera, political matters can come to play as well. Often the proper handling of such matters is not very clear-cut but the more perspective you get, the more often you feel that working from the inside is more effective than admonishing words from the outside even if you maintain a more high ground. It may well be that Swedish government will ask TeliaSonera to develop some sort of a plan on the matters.