Awards ceremony for the Fritt Ord Foundation Competition for Upper Secondary School

April 12 2018

Welcome to the awards ceremony for the Fritt Ord Foundation Competition for Upper Secondary School, on Thursday, 12 April, at 2 p.m. at Uranienborgveien 2. There will be a formal and enjoyable celebration with speeches, finger food, and entertainment provided by music students from Foss Upper Secondary School.

The topic of this year’s competition was “Propaganda”, and participants were invited to submit entries in a variety of genres: audio, video or online productions, essays or articles. Fritt Ord received 255 interpretations of the assignment, and the projects have shed light on different types of propaganda from a number of perspectives.

The following four projects are the winners:

  • A video essay on body-image pressure, submitted by Marta Berstad from Nord-Gudbrandsdal Upper Secondary School (also the school of last year’s winners)
  • Music video on propaganda and the great ideologies of the 1900s, submitted by Tobias Karlsen and fellow pupils at Bergeland Upper Secondary School in Stavanger
  • “Out of hibernation”, essay written by Selma Sofie Norup, Bergen Cathedral School, based on Trump’s election victory
  • The essay “This is propaganda” by Leah Jakobsen, Ullern Upper Secondary School, a personal text about media pressure in everyday life

In addition to a cash prize, the prize laureates will take part in a study tour to Strasbourg, where they will visit the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the EU parliament.

Programme for the awards ceremony:

  • Speech by the chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board, Grete Brochmann
  • Speech by the chair of the jury, Jostein Saxegaard, and jury members Lene Julsen and Lars Laird Iversen.
  • Speech by the prize laureates

Iver Jensen, jury member and former winner of the Fritt Ord Foundation Competition, will be master of ceremonies for the event.

The programme will finish by 3 p.m., and will be followed by a social gathering. Canapés will be served.

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.