Congratulations to the winners of the Fritt Ord and ZEIT-Stiftungs Eastern Europe Press Prizes

June 24 2015

The Fritt Ord Prize: Free Press Russia and the Gerd Bucerius Prize: Free Press Eastern Europe were awarded on Wednesday 24 June 2015 at noon at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

The prize laureates are the weekly newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya and editor Galina Timchenko from Russia, the news agency Slidstvo.Info and the journalists Serhiy Harmash and Valentyna Samar from Ukraine, along with the online news medium Netgazeti from Georgia.

Read more about the laureates here.

Speakers and musical perfromaces, in chronological order:

Improvisation: “Song of India”
from the opera Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov

Welcome (pdf), by Sigrun Slapgard, Foreign Reporter and Member of the Board of Trustees, Fritt Ord Foundation

Speech of congratulations to the prize laureates (pdf), by Morten Høglund, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A never-ending challenge? Speech by Manfred Lahnstein, Professor and Chair of the Board of Trustees, ZEIT-Stiftung

“En fermant les yeux”
from the opera Manon by Massenet

Address on behalf of the jury (pdf), by Theo Sommer, Chair of the Jury

Speeches on behalf of the Laureates,


“Marechiare”
by F.P. Tosti

Musicians:
Håkon Kornstad (saxophone, vocals)
Frode Haltli (accordion)
Mats Eilertsen (double bass)

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.