Tinius, Fritt Ord and Amedia join forces to save the public information centre Medianorge for the remainder of 2023
Following the Ministry of Culture’s decision to move responsibilities from Medienorge to the Norwegian Media Authority, the Tinius and Fritt Ord foundations are joining Amedia to ensure funding for the Medianorge knowledge base at the University of Bergen for the remainder of 2023. The support totals MNOK 2.
Recently, a united media industry, comprised of the Norwegian Press Association, the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association, the Norwegian Union of Journalists, the Norwegian Specialized Press Association, the Association for Local Newspapers, the Norwegian Local Radio Federation and the Association of Norwegian Editors, joined forces to ask the Government to continue funding the independent Medianorge knowledge base in 2023, and not to reassign Medienorge’s responsibilities to the Norwegian Media Authority, as proposed in the government budget.
“The formidable task of ensuring good public media statistics from an independent source like Medienorge at the University of Bergen, has unique intrinsic value. Independent information gathering and the presentation of trends in media use are more important than ever, and they should not be handled by the state’s own supervisory body, the Norwegian Media Authority”, comments Knut Olav Åmås, executive director of the Fritt Ord Foundation, in a press release.
The temporary rescue package has already been discussed in Journalisten, Khrono and Medier24.
