News

Seminar on freedom of expression at the Norwegian Parliament: "Stop talking about technology platforms as though we have no way to control them.”

“It is possible to regulate technology platforms”, stated former Minister of Culture Trine Skei Grande on 19 November, when the Presidium of the Storting invited the public to a seminar on freedom of expression.
“We are not without options for exercising control”
To protect freedom of expression in a digital era, it is important that we dare to regulate the international technology platforms and social media, and that we are on the alert for the negative effects of artificial intelligence and deep fakes.

Refuse to be silenced. Free Media Awards handed out in Oslo

We refuse to be silenced.
That was the common message when six media outlets, journalists, and editors from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus received the Free Media Awards 2024 on September 17 at the Nobel Institute in Oslo.
– Threatening, attacking, kidnapping, and murdering journalists has become a war tactic, said documentary filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei in her speech to the prize winners.

The History of History – graphic novels can shed light on history in new ways

Graphic novels that address historical topics was this year’s focus among the 144 public libraries that responded to the Fritt Ord Foundation’s call for applications from libraries for 2024, "The History of History».
According to graphic art creators as well as librarians, graphic novels can recount history in new ways to new groups of readers. Forty-four libraries have been granted MNOK 2.6 to organise meetings on nonfictional prose, fiction and graphic novels. This is the largest amount since the calls for applications from libraries began in 2008.

How to talk about racism?

Debate seminar at the Fritt Ord Foundation premises, Uranienborgveien 2, from 6-7.30 p.m. on Monday, 9 September

Free Media Awards for 2024 presented

The Fritt Ord Foundation and the Zeit Stiftung Bucerius hereby announce that the Free Media Awards for 2024 will be presented to journalists and media from Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia and, for the first time, Hungary.

Frie stemmer – Freedom of expression made Panama Papers possible

Gerard Ryle, an Irish-Australian investigative journalist and director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has led projects that resulted in the resignation of four prime ministers. He led the world’s largest journalistic collaborations: Offshore Leaks, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, FinCEN Files, and Pandora Papers. “They are all based on the principles of freedom of expression,” he says.

Tuva won the history competition by telling about her Great Aunt Ragnhild

Tuva Rognås Strømmen from Valdres Upper Secondary School won the history competition ‘My family in History’ with the story entitled “An ordinary life, out of the ordinary” about the life choices that her Great Aunt Ragnhild made in the late 1800s. Liv Conradi Andersen from Kråkerøy Lower Secondary School won an award for “First she lost her home, then they wanted to take away her language” about how her Sámi grandmother Marit Elvira experienced the Norwegianisation policy prevalent in Finnmark County in the 1950s.

Pastor Kjersti Gautestad Norheim new member of the Fritt Ord Board

Pastor Kjersti Gautestad Norheim has been appointed to the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Computer games as therapy and consolation. New allocations for journalism in June

Fritt Ord's Grants for critics awarded for 2024-2025

The Fritt Ord Foundation awards annual grants to critics for 2024-2025. At NOK 250 000 each, the grants should result in a steady stream of reviews during the period from August 2024 to August 2025.

Are deepfakes a threat to media authenticity?

A new report gives some answers and, for the first time, the use of artificial intelligence in the media has been surveyed all over the world.

The Fritt Ord Foundation, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford and the University of Bergen invite the public to the world-wide launch of the Reuters Digital News Report 2024 and the Norwegian report:

Monday, 17 June 2024, 08.30-10.00 a.m.
Uranienborgveien 2, Oslo

“In an age of fake news, AI, propaganda and manipulation, we must place trust in the photographer himself.” Speeches on the occasion of the awarding of the 2024 Fritt Ord Prize to Harald Henden

“Each day, more than 3 billion images are uploaded to social media, including photos from conflicts and disasters. However, in an age of fake news, propaganda, manipulation and artificial intelligence, the question is often ‘what can we trust?’" observed Harald Henden upon being awarded the Fritt Ord Prize.
His response is that we must trust the individual photographer. Grete Brochmann, chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board, drove home the same point, calling war and documentary photography an integral part of the infrastructure of freedom of expression.

War photographer and prize laureate Harald Henden: “Credibility is journalism's most important capital asset”

“Credibility is the media’s most important capital asset. That is precisely why the importance of having the media’s own photographers on site has not diminished. In point of fact, it is more important than ever before.
“This is because credibility is also an individual photographer’s most important asset. “When I put my name under a photo, readers should be able to trust that the content is correct, so that no further verification is needed. This brand of credibility takes many years to build up, and it can be descimated by a single mistake,” commented Harald Henden (63) upon being awarded the Fritt Ord Prize on Tuesday evening.

Ingeborg studies constructive journalism in Oxford

This story is only published in Norwegian.

Book launch of Fritt Ord’s 50th anniversary book 1974-2024

Writer and historian Hilde Gunn Slottemo presents “Freedom of expression. Foundation and Society 1974-2024”

Fritt Ord Prize for 2024 to war and press photographer Harald Henden

The Fritt Ord Foundation’s Prize for 2024 is awarded to war and press photographer Harald Henden for his courageous and uncompromising documentation of wars, conflicts and natural disasters for more than three decades.