Survey of media coverage from 2011 to 2022 of the terrorist acts committed on 22 July 2011

October 26 2022

For the first time, a systematic analysis has been made of 11 years of media coverage on the acts of terror committed on 22 July 2011.
Nearly 500 000 newspaper articles have been published about the right-wing extremist acts of terror from the time they were committed until the summer of 2022.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the Sundvolden Hotel, near Utøya Island, on 23 July 2011. Photo: Henrik Pryser Libell
Click on the links below to download the full report (in Norwegian) and/or a shorter version of the report (in Norwegian) that was presented at the press conference arranged by Fritt Ord on 26 October 2022.

Media coverage in the aftermath of 22 July 2011
Fritt Ord is filming the presentation on 26 October. Click here to stream the meeting from 10-11.30 a.m.
The report includes all Norwegian media coverage on the acts of terror committed on 22 July 2011, from the summer of 2011 to the summer of 2022.
Many consider the 10th anniversary of the incident in 2021 a watershed in the debate on the heinous acts of terror. Fresh perspectives, insights, research reports and books set a new tone for the media debate. The participation of members of the Workers’ Youth League (AUF) was especially important. An intense, comprehensive debate was coloured by allegations about the place of AUF politicians and right-wing radicals in the media during the period in question, and it used terms such as ‘responsibility of speech’ and ’the Utøya card’..
In late summer 2021, the Fritt Ord Foundation commissioned the media analysis agency Retriever to examine the media coverage of the right-wing extremist acts of terror committed in Oslo and on Utøya Island a decade earlier. The investigation was intended to provide a constructive, fact-based platform for further discussions on the topics mentioned.
The report was funded exclusively by Fritt Ord.

Skjermbilde 2022 10 25 kl. 17.23.30

“The report (in Norwegian) ":/attachments/cce1b2d67e930df722f06770aba9dd807251a1be/218-20221026073622244824.pdf

Presentation of the report

News

Child friendly spaces world vision gaza crisis appeal distasters emergency committee

Freedom of Expression and the War in Gaza

November 27 2023

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.

20230909 teaterfestivalen 4038

Norway's first journal about narratives. Reports, investigative journalism and new grants for journalism

November 22 2023

“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).

Fo   anja s   1

How to avoid deadlocked debates in permanent culture wars.

November 16 2023

“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).

Skjermbilde 2023 11 07 kl. 13.48.36

Open debate and discussion: Male roles in Muslim communities

November 6 2023

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.