News
No Other Land
The Fritt Ord Foundation is collaborating with the Human International Documentary Film Festival and Antipode Films to screen ‘No Other Land’ at Vega Scene in Oslo on Monday, 4 March 2024 at 6 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., and at Cinemateket in Oslo on Tuesday, 5 March at 4 p.m. Directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, who are also the film’s protagonists, will appear live on a video link from Masafar Yatta on the West Bank both days.
Queendom - film and talk with Agniia Galdanova and Igor Myakotin
The Fritt Ord Foundation and the HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival invite the public to a screening of ‘Queendom’ and a talk with director Agniia Galdanova and producer Igor Myakotin following the screening at Vega Scene 1 in Oslo on Saturday, 9 March 2024 at 5:45 p.m. The director will introduce the film.
Norway banned Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’. Now a book about film censorship is in the pipeline
Critic and writer Johanne Elster Hanson is making her debut as an author with a book about the time when Norwegian film censorship took the world by surprise, not least the Monty Python group of comedians, by banning the ‘Life of Brian’ satire film. The author would like to track down any Norwegians who went on a film safari to Sweden in 1980 to circumvent Norwegian censorship.
Breathing new life into investigative journalism, even in small newsrooms
In recent years, Norwegian journalists have gained access to powerful tools and new methods for investigative journalism, even in small newsrooms. New types of collaboration are producing results. How has all this happened? Fritt Ord asked this question in a debate seminar on 14 February.
A new era for investigative journalism in Norway
Local and regional newspapers are now conducting the type of investigations and making discoveries that used to be expected only from major national media. How did that happen? Fritt Ord invites the public to a debate seminar at 10 a.m. on 14 February.
Broke with the Brunstad Christian Church. Now she is writing a play on closed religious communities
Karin Kilden broke with the Brunstad Christian Church. Now she is writing a play for the theater Oslo Nye about it. Chemist and writer Unni Eikeseth writes about science and weapons production and folk dance star Brigitte Blomlie will use folk dance to break the silence on abuse. See new allocations from Fritt Ord.
Norwegian TV series have allowed other voices to be heard
“The huge success of Norwegian TV series has enabled them to address difficult issues and to unleash the voices of minorities and women more often in TV series than in films,” says media expert Gry Cecilie Rustad. She is planning to write a book about the history of Norwegian TV series. In Myanmar, the TV station the ‘Democratic Voice of Burma’ continues its fight against the propaganda of the military junta in the country. See the list of new grants awarded in December.
Scrolling and gaming: Prejudices against screen culture
Tvibit and Fritt Ord invite the public to a debate and talk at Tvibit in Tromsø (address: Parkgata 27) at 4.30 p.m. on Friday, 19 January, prior to the documentary film ‘Ibelin’ about the gamer Mats Steen, which will be screened that evening at 7.15 p.m. at the Tromsø Film Festival. The event is open to all.
Nominations for the Fritt Ord Prize 2024
The Fritt Ord Foundation invites nominations for potential candidates for the Fritt Ord Prize 2024.
Finnmark residents want to be king of their own castle
Why is it so important for the people of Finnmark to be ‘king of their own castle’? Photographer Ingerid Jordal has asked herself this question in four exhibitions planned for 2024, while the ‘shotgun wedding’ of the former separate counties of Troms and Finnmark is to be ‘annulled’. Three photographers portray motherhood, and Persian poetry is explored as a political force in Iran. See the list of new grants awarded by Fritt Ord.
Norway's first journal about narratives. Reports, investigative journalism and new grants for journalism
“Those of us who do not live in cities also deserve access to rich public discourse,” says Tora Hope, editor of Jaja, a new journal about narratives based in the village of Fjaler in western Norway. The student newspaper Universitas has received funding to examine the situation for freedom of expression at educational institutions, and photojournalist Nora Savosnick has been on a reporting trip to Israel and Palestine. See the new grants for journalism (list in Norwegian only).
Freedom of Expression and the War in Gaza
The Fritt Ord Foundation, Masahat for Arab Culture in Exile, and Vega Scene cordially invite the public to a conversation on Wednesday, 29 November 2023 from 6 – 8 p.m. at Vega Scene in Hausmanns gate 30, Oslo.
How to avoid deadlocked debates in permanent culture wars.
“It takes differences of opinion to have a debate. When the stakes are high, discussions pick up momentum, but a high level of conflict combined with an irreconcilable tone raises concerns about democracy per se,” says author and social geographer Anja Sletteland, who has earned a PhD in ‘deadlocked debates’. The controversy surrounding the NRK programme Brainwash got her interested in debates ‘that go bananas’, and in cancellations. Now she is writing a book about why this happens and how to avoid sliding into perpetual trench warfare, where no one listens to each other. See the grants that Fritt Ord awarded in October (list in Norwegian only).
Open debate and discussion: Male roles in Muslim communities
Fritt Ord’s project ‘Islam in Norway’ invites the public to an open debate and discussion on male roles in Muslim communities, with a special focus on the situation of boys. The event will be held on Thursday, 9 November 2023, from 6 to 7.30 p.m. in ‘Skramsalen’ at the House of Literature, Wergelandsveien 29, Oslo.
Fritt Ord-initiated media survey on 22 July nominated for award
The report Fritt Ord commissioned on the media coverage of the 22 July terrorist attacks from 2011 to 2022 has been nominated for the AMEC Awards.