Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has announced that his country will participate in sanctions against Russia but will not block Russian state media from his country, stating he is against censorship.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, said that he was against the idea of banning Russian state-owned media outlets such as broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) or Sputnik, as he was opposed to censorship.
“Disinformation should as far as possible be met with source criticism, not censorship,” the Prime Minister said.
Norwegian lawyer Jon Wessel-Aas also claimed that blocking Russian media could violate Norway’s constitution, stating: “Article 100 of the Constitution imposes a categorical ban on pre-censorship,” newspaper Dagbladet reports.
Article 100 of the constitution grants freedom of expression and states: “Prior censorship and other preventive measures may not be applied unless so required in order to protect children and young persons from the harmful influence of moving pictures. Censorship of letters may only be imposed in institutions.”
Lawyer Wessel-Aas also noted that a move to censor Russian media with the state deciding what was disinformation would make European countries more like Russia and would give Russian President Vladimir Putin ammunition to claim western countries also engage in censorship of media.
While Norway has, for now, decided not to censor Russian media, other western countries have moved forward with banning Russian state-owned media companies.
Prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Germany blocked RT’s German-language arm over alleged licensing issues, prompting the Russian government to expel employees of Deutsche Welle, a German state-owned broadcaster, from Russia in retaliation.
More recently, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced it would be banning RT and RT France from its list of non-Canadian broadcasters authorized to air in Canada.
“RT’s programming is not consistent with the standards against which Canadian services are measured nor the policy objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act,” the CRTC announced.
“The CRTC is also concerned with programming from a foreign country that seeks to undermine the sovereignty of another country, demean Canadians of a particular ethnic background and undermine democratic institutions within Canada,” the regulator added.
CRTC CEO Ian Scott later gave a statement on the issue saying: “Freedom of speech and a range of perspectives are a necessary part of our democracy. However, it is a privilege and not a right to be broadcast in Canada.”
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