What constitute a democracy and what specific requirements have
to be present in order for a political system to be described as such? Numerous
books and thesis have been written on the subject in an attempt to define the
true meaning of the word. However when dissecting this question and analysing
it methodically one soon realizes that the answer to this question is pretty
much straight forward and there is no need to write lengthy books and elaborate
on the issue in tedious and boring dissertations. The most important criteria that
need to be present for a democracy to exist are a free and unrestricted
exchange of opinions and ideas. That’s really all there’s to it. For a
democracy to exist its citizens must be able to freely and without the fear of
being persecuted express their views on issues such as politics, religion and society
in general. Remove any one of these conditions from the equation and a society cannot
in good faith be classified as a democracy as it invariably engages in some
form of suppression of certain views and opinions. The correct way of
describing the act of restricting political views is of course censorship, which
has been an indispensable tool of every dictatorship that has ever existed on
this planet, its main purpose being to silence views and opinions that it find
undesirable and which could jeopardize its position.
In the end however the task of ensuring that a society is
free and just fall upon the citizens themselves. But at the same time an extra
responsibility falls upon the shoulders of the media as they are the only ones that
can provide the framework for a system where the exchange of ideas and opinions
can occur on a large scale. The media is the sum of everything that takes place
in a society and thus it is the purveyor of essential information that the
citizens of a free society need to make sound decisions. The information which
is presented to the citizens will ultimately determine which political party ends
up in government and thus get to execute their ideas and stake out the future course
of the nation. Bearing this in mind it’s of the utmost importance that the
media is honest and impartial and that it follows these principles religiously.
If the media is unwilling to honour these values then the society in which it
exists cannot truly be described as a democratic one. The last time these principles where set aside
in Norway were during the Second World War when the German occupying forces
carefully controlled the flow of information and banned any news that questioned
its authority.
It shouldn’t really be necessary to debate why the
restrictions imposed on Norway during the war aren’t preferable or desirable. Most
people understand that it is a bad idea to allow the media to become the
mouthpiece of the authorities. During the Second World War the German occupying
forces and their Norwegian collaborators made no attempts at hiding the fact that
they were censoring the news and everyone in Norway knew what was going on. It can be a little bit trickier to detect when
certain basic principles are put aside in what appears to be a seemingly normal
and healthy democracy. For a newspaper or a political organization to publicly admit
that they are using the media for their own purposes would be disastrous and be
akin to political suicide. But just because no one is willing to publicly admit
it doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t happen. To allege that the media in
Norway are permitting themselves to be used by political forces isn’t as
farfetched as it sounds and this is what we are going to take a closer look at
in this article.
But before we go there let’s take a closer look at the role
of the media and the principles they should try to uphold. As mentioned
earlier is it not necessary to write a book about the subject or dissect it in
a long and boring thesis. We can simply cut to the chase and narrow it down to
two basic and very simple factors. The
media should be unbiased and honest, meaning that it shouldn’t favour any
political parties or steer clear of any difficult subjects because of any
perceived undesirable consequences it would cause for the political parties
involved. It is the role of the media to accurately recount events, to
truthfully analyse political news and to shed light on issues that affect the
citizens of a society. Personal opinions and political advocacy should be left
to bloggers and political organizations, and not be disguised as serious
journalism.
There are several factors that will help us to determine
whether a newspaper or newsagency is biased or not. One of the most obvious
ways of establishing this it is by studying the stories they print. Are they
offering both sides of the story or are they focusing unduly on one aspect? Are
they favouring certain political factions or are they presenting all political
parties in a fair and balanced manner? Another important indicator is the
political leanings of the journalists themselves. Are they allowing their own
personal opinions to shine through and influence the content of the articles? And
more importantly, who is funding the newspaper and what are the political
agenda of these financial backers? Because funding does play an important part in
deciding the impartiality of the media. Would it be fair to question the integrity
of a newspaper if a political organization donated large sum of money to it at
the same time as the newspaper was reporting on the political organizations and disguising
it as serious journalism? The obvious answer to that question has to be a
resounding yes. In a court of law a motion of conflict of interest would be reached
if a judge was in position where he was likely to favour one of the pursuant
due to financial or personal interests. It all boils down to personal integrity.
One of the most important responsibilities of a newspaper is to keep a critical
eye on political organizations and decision makers. When the people or
organizations that the newspaper is supposed to keep an eye on start paying the
wages of the journalists writing about them the lines start to blur.
In Norway representatives from the media and various political parties have on
several occasions, and in particular when it comes to the theory of manmade
global warming, discredited research on the basis that it is purportedly
sponsored by large oil corporations that would benefit from the discrediting of
said theory. In taking such a standpoint they are indirectly admitting that funding
does have an impact on the impartiality of the one sponsored. And this brings
us to the main issue of this article, which is that the Norwegian press subsidies
cast a very dark shadow over the impartiality and integrity of the media in
Norway.
Each year the media in Norway receives indirect and direct press
subsidies to the amount of Nok 6 billion. The biggest chunk goes to NRK (Norwegian
Broadcasting Corporation) which is the national broadcaster and which up until
the mid eighties was the only available TV station for the majority of the
population in Norway. The rest of the subsidies go to regional newspapers, many
of whom would not be able to survive financially without this additional cash
infusion. And what is truly disconcerting is that the media in Norway, with
very few exceptions are almost undistinguishable ideologically from one another and
by and large share the views espoused by the authorities. The media hardly ever
challenge the political establishment in important matters that go against the official
line. In Norway both the media and the political establishment are staunch supporters
of multiculturalism and hence the media refrain from questioning the
establishments’ official policy on this issue. The same thing can be said about
manmade climate change, formerly only referred to as global warming, a theory
that both the media and the authorities believe passionately in. Keeping that
in mind it would not be unreasonable to argue that the media in Norway often
mirrors and promotes the ideological views of the authorities who in return heavily
subsidizes the same media.
How the media
subsidies in Norway work
In Norway newspapers receive approximately Nok 2 billion in
direct and indirect subsidies each year. Direct subsidies are distributed by
the Norwegian media authority which processes applications for direct press
subsidies and decides which newspapers are eligible for such funds. The
subsidies vary in size from year to year. The newspaper that is currently receives
most direct funding from the authorities in Norway is Dagsavisen, which in 2005
received a staggering Nok 41 millions in direct press subsidies. Indirect
subsidies refer to the system in which Norwegian newspapers are exempt from
having to pay sales tax on newspapers sales. In addition to press subsidies paid
out to various newspapers the national TV broadcaster NRK receives
approximately Nok 4billion annually in direct subsidies which is financed
through a mandatory TV license scheme.
The idea of introducing press subsidies in Norway were first
launched in the early 1960’s after several newspaper were forced to close down
due to financial difficulties. One of the major media corporations in Norway
A-Pressen, which at the time was co-owned by LO (Norway’s biggest Labour Union)
and the Labour Party (The Labour Party sold its shares in 1995) proposed the scheme
as a way to compensate for dwindling newspaper sales. The scheme was approved
and passed in 1969 which was also the first year that press subsidies were distributed. It should also be noted that
A-pressen received 42.1 percent of the overall subsidies the first year and that
the traditional conservative newspapers received only a modest 19.5
percent. This was due to the fact that the conservative newspapers were smaller
and thus not entitled to the same amount of subsidies as the newspapers owned
by A-Pressen. The disparity in subsidies continued to increase in favour of
A-pressen in the following years and several of the conservative newspapers eventually
had to throw in the towel and allowing A-pressen to greatly enhance its market
shares. This would tend to indicate that the press subsidy scheme was
instrumental in creating an undue advantage for A-pressen over its conservative
counterparts.
It should also be noted that the press subsidy scheme
favours the main rivals of the biggest regional newspapers and that this happens
to a very large extent to be newspapers owned by A-pressen. The biggest regional
newspapers in Norway only receive indirect subsidies while the number two
newspapers receive both direct and indirect subsidies. This is problematic when
considering that A-pressen is one of the biggest media corporations in Norway with
more than 100 newspapers in its portfolio and that it is a majority shareholder
in the national commercial TV station TV2. It is also disconcerting when
considering that A-Pressen is strongly affiliated with the Labour Party and that
it is a firm supporter of Labour Party policies.
The justification for having press subsidies in Norway is to
support smaller newspapers that would otherwise struggle financially and to
ensure that there is diversity in the media in Norway. This was the
stated intention when the scheme was passed by parliament in 1969. Based on
this information one would expect that the media in Norway to be very diverse and that
it covers a wide spectrum of opinions and ideas. Unfortunately this isn’t the
case. On the contrary there hardly exist any major ideological differences
between the newspapers with a few minor exceptions, which clearly go against the
stated philosophy of the scheme, which is to increase diversity in the media. As
a matter of fact the exact opposite has occurred, namely that the subsidies
have favoured newspapers that are closely linked to the ruling Labour Party and
those supporting Labour Party policies. This overlapping of public
funding and political interests puts the entire industry in a very negative
light and leaves it wide open to criticism and it raises the unavoidable
question about whether the press subsidies are designed to be exactly what the
opponents claim it is, namely a cunning system to booster support for the
Labour Party and to promote its policies.
If the sole criterion behind the scheme is to create
diversity in the media and give a helping hand to newspapers that otherwise
wouldn’t survive then it’s fair to assume that newspapers that qualify for the grants
wouldn’t be rejected based on the editorial content of their newspapers. The philosophy
behind the scheme is that the more a newspaper diverges from the existing and established
the more likely it is to receive funding from the authorities. But unfortunately
this isn’t always the case. Both the Christian newspaper ‘Norge I dag’ and the
financial newspaper ‘Finansavisen’ have had their application for press
subsidies rejected based on their editorial content and format. The justification given to ‘Norge i Dag’ for
the rejection was that the content of the newspaper wasn’t up to standard and
that it didn’t cover enough cultural news stories. To be fair it should be
pointed out that the newspaper ‘Norge i Dag’ is a weekly newspaper and that
slightly different rules apply, but even so the rejection clearly shows that the
decision is left to personal whim of the bureaucrats that are tasked with
approving press subsidies applications. That a rejection has adverse
consequence for those affected and that it leaves them with a disadvantage compared
with does that are successful in obtaining subsidies is obvious.
The consequences of press
subsidies
One of the consequences of the Norwegian press subsidy
scheme is that every single newspaper journalist in Norway is sponsored annually to the
sum of Nok 430 000. There are nearly 3 500 journalists working in
newspapers (not including magazines and weekly/monthly newspapers) in Norway
and the annual total press subsidies amounts to Nok 1.5 billion. On top of this
NRK employs approximately 2300 journalists out of a total workforce of roughly
3500, which means that each journalist working for the TV channel is subsidises
each year by a staggering Nok 1 140 000. We are indeed talking about astronomical
sums of money here just to ensure that journalists in Norway don’t have to worry about
losing their jobs. There is no question that the number of journalists in
Norway would be considerately lower had it not been for the press subsidy
scheme and NRK’s mandatory annual TV licence fee. There would also have been
considerately fewer newspapers without the scheme, which takes us to the heart
of the matter which is that journalists and newspapers in Norway are dependent
on direct funding from the authorities to survive. The labour Party and the Socialist
Left (SV) are strong supporter of press subsidies unlike the two main conservative
parties FrP (Progress Party) and HΓΈyre (the conservatives),
which basically means that it is in a journalist’s best interest to ensure that
the Labour Party remains a strong political force in Norway. Political surveys
carried out among Norwegian journalists also show that journalists by and large
support the Labour Party and SV. Very few journalists support any of the conservative
parties. This disparity in political leaning among the journalists could of
course be a mere coincidence, but then again it could also be a result of the
press subsidy scheme and the media’s dependency on it.
If the original goal of the media subsidies was to encourage
diversity in the media then it has definitely failed in accomplishing
this. This became especially noticeable in the aftermath of the terror attacks
in Norway on July 22, 2011. Despite the blatant incompetence of the various
public agencies in the lead up and during the attacks which almost borders on
criminality and which can be directly attributed to the policies of the ruling
labour Party that has been in government since 2005, not a single newspaper
expressed any criticism towards the Labour Party and the prime minister Jens
Stoltenberg who theoretically bears the ultimate responsibility for the fiasco
and the sorry state of the affected agencies which was supposed to prevent and
respond to the attacks. Even after the official
July 22 commission presented its report on what went wrong that day, a report
which was basically an unadulterated accusation of the Labour Party and the top
echelon of the party, none of the newspapers in Norway called for the dismissal
of Jens Stoltenberg or any of his top Government ministers, and one really has
to wonder why. Why didn’t one single journalist or one single newspaper raise
this issue? There are more than 200 newspapers in Norway and more than 10 000
journalists whose job it is to report and analyse current events in a truthful
an honest manner. Why didn’t a single one of them point the finger at the
country’s top leadership?
It was equally distressing to see the almost indistinguishable
media response in the days and weeks following the attacks in which the
Norwegian media targeted conservative bloggers and independent websites, both
national and international and indirectly accused them of being ideological
contributors to the tragedy. The media’s response almost seemed orchestrated,
something which shouldn’t be possible when taking into consideration the sheer
number of newspapers and journalists in Norway. Thus it is not unreasonable to
speculate about whether this almost uniform response has something to do with the
Norwegian media’s financial dependency on the authorities and the way the press
subsidy scheme has managed to greatly restrict the diversity in the media to where it is today where it almost appears to speak with one unified voice
when it comes to big important ideological issues. The main problem with this is of course that
there is a very real danger that biased reporting will influence and shape the
views of the readers. If alternative views and opinions aren’t presented to the
readers then how will they ever be able to truly form independent opinions?
If the media deliberately refrain from covering certain
issues or covering issues in a biased manner can it really be referred to as journalism?
Some believe that the subsidizing of the media can be equated to corruption and
they do have a point. No one with a good knowledge of Norway can deny that
there exists strong ties between the trade union LO and the Labour Party. LO is
one of the main financial contributors to the Labour Party and the labour Party
have reciprocated this loyalty several times by awarding special concessions to
LO and its members. The trade union owns a large chunk of the newspapers in Norway,
as a matter of fact almost half of all the newspapers in Norway are owned by LO
through its shares in A-pressen. We also know that it was the Labour Party and
the LO that were the driving force behind the press subsidies scheme which they
are staunch supporters of to this day. One could be tempted to say that one
hand feeds the other something that shouldn’t take place in a supposedly democratic
western nation.
Labour Party and public
opinion in Norway
Up until the mid 1980’s Norway only had one national TV
channel which was and still is one hundred percent publicly funded. Those
living near the Swedish border were able to access Swedish state television,
but for the great majority of Norwegians NRK was the only alternative. NRK has for
many years enjoyed a monopoly on TV and Radio broadcasts and it is no
exaggeration to claim that it has been the most influential opinion maker in
Norway up through the years and that it has been an important tool for the
authorities and it still is to this day. It is the responsibility of the Norwegian
government to appoint members to the Broadcasting board which then again
appoint the CEO of NRK. It is somewhat of an open secret in Norway that the
political leaning of the CEO is more important than qualifications and politicians
from all political parties in the country have at some stage stated that the political leanings of the CEO will
influences the presentation of the news. The most vocal proponent of this view
was former leader of the FrP (progress party), Carl I Hagen who simpl referred to NRK
as ARK (Arbeiderparties rikskringkasting – The Labour Party’s Broadcasting
Corporation) as in his opinion the broadcaster blatantly favoured the labour
Party and was equally blatant in its hostility towards the FrP and its policies.
As a curiosity it’s worth mentioning that NRK up until quite recently has refused
to show boxing on TV due to former CEO and Labour Politician, Bjartmar Gjerde’s
strong opposition to the sport. This bizarre ban resulted in Norwegian boxing
fans being unable to watch highlights from the match between Steffen
Tangstad and Michael Spinks for the European heavy weight title in 1986 on NRK,
a match by the way which Steffen Tangstad lost.
The Norwegian authorities have always been fiercely
protective of NRK’s broadcasting monopoly and this became especially clear in
the late 1970’s and early 80’s when they aggressively pursued and closed down
independent pirate radio stations operated by idealistic youths who wanted to challenge
what they saw as an undemocratic practise. In 1981, in an exceptional show of
force twelve police officers raided the apartment of pirate radio activist Rolf
Pedersen in Stavanger (City on the west coast of Norway). Inside the apartment the police found
Pedersen and his mom, both of whom were taken to the local police station for
questioning. The police also confiscated Pedersen’s transmitter equipment which
was the aim of the raid. Pedersen along with several other young activists had on
several previous occasions been arrested by the police for disregarding the NRK
monopoly. In the end however their perseverance paid off and they were
instrumental in breaking up the NRK broadcasting monopoly. And in December 1981 Rolf
Pedersen was finally given the first official permit to open up a local radio
station in Norway. Looking back it’s hard to understand the reluctance on the authorities’
part to refuse small local radio stations to operate alongside NRK. It’s equally
difficult to comprehend how the authorities could justify dispatching 12 police
officers to Pedersen’s apartment in order to shut down a tiny pirate radio
station. It is also troubling to witness the desperation of the authorities and
to see how protective they were of the NRK monopoly. The response of the
Norwegian authorities was very similar to that of former eastern bloc
dictatorships trying to crack down on political dissidents.
But despite the progress made by small local radio stations which
started to pop up all across the country in the following years, NRK still had
a monopoly on TV broadcasting and when the first private satellite dishes
started to emerge in Norway the police was initially instructed to confiscate
the dishes and fine the owners. The justification for going to such drastic
steps was exactly the same as the one the authorities used to arrest pirate
radio activists, namely that the satellite dishes were in breach of
NRK’s TV monopoly. The authorities however finally started to realise that they
were fighting a losing battle as the sale of satellite dishes pretty much exploded
in the mid 80’s and they eventually caved in and decided to allow private
ownership of satellite dishes, and thus the slow erosion of the media hegemony
of the Norwegian state continued.
Again it’s worth asking why the authorities were so
reluctant to allow other news broadcasters to tap into the Norwegian market. After
all the incentive for the press subsidies was to ensure and facilitate media
diversity i.e. to ensure that different opinions and ideas were able to
flourish. However looking back it becomes evident that the actions of the
authorities have always been in clear violation of these principles. Their
actions have always been counterproductive in bringing about media diversity in
Norway. The fact that we now enjoy a considerable more diverse media landscape
than in the early 80’s is largely due to the actions of private individuals and
organizations that have had to endure persecution and harassment from the
authorities for having the guts to take them on. Based on this knowledge one
really has to ask the question whether the authorities are really interested in
having diversity in the media in Norway, and if the true purpose of the Norwegian
press subsidy scheme to restrict this diversity.
Another troubling consequence of the lack of distinct
political ideology in the media in Norway is that it has become harder to
differentiate between the various political parties in Norway. Today there are
hardly any ideological differences between the big political parties, excluding
the Socialist Left and some very minor fringe parties that have no real political
influence. And one has to wonder why the political parties over the last couple
of decades have gradually become more alike. Today there are hardly any opposing
voices in political circles in Norway when it comes to multiculturalism, social
security and climate change. Some very minor differences still exist between
the political parties, but not to the extent seen in other nations where true
political differences can still be found, which basically means that voters don’t
really have any meaningful political alternatives to chose between. There could
be several reasons for this dramatic political change, but it’s not
unreasonable to speculate that the media have managed to bring about or at
least been able to substantially influence this ideological process. Media has
a lot of power and they are the most important opinion makers in Norway today.
And when they stop or are reluctant to engage in honest and independent
journalism and instead starts engaging in ideological based reporting this will
with have an effect on the political views of the readers.
A desirable
alternative
Most people would agree that diversity in the media in which
a wide range of opinions and ideas can be found and debated is an ideal
scenario. However, history has shown us, at least when it comes to Norway, that
the authorities are ill equipped to bring about such diversity. It has always
been private individuals and enterprises that have cleared the path for more
diversity in the media in Norway, despite the authorities’ attempts at preventing them
from doing so. And the fight to bring about true media diversity in Norway has
gained momentum in the last decade and it has managed to put some serious dents
in the authorities’ ambition to control the minds of the masses. In today’s
digital age with tens of millions of blogs and independent internet based news
sites it seems almost impossible for the authorities to control and restrict
the free flow of information and ideas. Consumers of news are also gradually
changing their habits and are at least in the Scandinavian countries turning to
online based independent news sources. And there’s no denying that with the introduction
of the internet in Norway people have really started to challenge the media consensus
and force the media to cover stories that they wouldn’t otherwise touch. And this
is a welcome change; because the more opinions and angles a reader is exposed
to the better equipped that reader is to make informed decisions.
Where do we find greater political diversity, in a place like Norway where the media is almost indistinguishable from one another or in a place like the USA where the diversity in the media is diametrically greater and where different opinions and ideas are not suppressed by the authorities? Newspapers do not have to be sheltered and artificially kept alive by the authorities. Normal marketplace mechanisms should decide whether a newspaper has the right to survive or not. A quality newspaper will always be successful and manage to turn a profit. That’s what we should strive for, not to maintain a couple of hundred newspapers that are merely blueprint versions of one another and when true media diversity has been established political diversity will follow and that is as close as we will ever get to an ideal scenario.
Where do we find greater political diversity, in a place like Norway where the media is almost indistinguishable from one another or in a place like the USA where the diversity in the media is diametrically greater and where different opinions and ideas are not suppressed by the authorities? Newspapers do not have to be sheltered and artificially kept alive by the authorities. Normal marketplace mechanisms should decide whether a newspaper has the right to survive or not. A quality newspaper will always be successful and manage to turn a profit. That’s what we should strive for, not to maintain a couple of hundred newspapers that are merely blueprint versions of one another and when true media diversity has been established political diversity will follow and that is as close as we will ever get to an ideal scenario.