Ytringsfrihet_Hovedrapport_DIG

2
Summary
The theme of this report is the status of the freedom of speech in contemporary
Norway. Based on a varied set of data, the authors explore attitudes towards and
experiences of expression in public among different groups in the population,
with a particular focus on the social and cultural preconditions for exercising
freedom of speech. The report also analyzes the perspectives of the media
industry and journalists on ongoing structural change within the mass media,
and it provides an overview of central juridical changes within the domains of the
freedom of the press and the freedom of information.
The baseline for the report is the White Paper on the Freedom of Speech
(NOU 1999:27), which was published in 1999. Since then important societal
change processes in Norway, and globally, have impacted on the conditions for
the freedom of speech. The report targets three such overall change processes:
an increasingly multicultural and multireligious society, the impact of digitalization
on the participation of citizens, on established media structures and on the
capacity of states and private actors to surveil and make use of private data, and
finally cultural changes within working life.
The report is composed by ten independent chapters, in addition to an introduction
and a conclusion.
In Chapter 1 Jon Wessel-Aas describes the legal development in the domain
of the freedom of the press, mainly based on the period from 1999 to 2014. On
the one hand, the freedom of the press has been strengthened with regard to
the right to publish without interference and with regard to the right to protect
journalistic sources, Wessel-Aas argues. On the other hand, press freedom risks
being undermined by an opposite development when it comes to freedom of
information, especially due to rather dramatic expansions of law enforcement
and intelligence authorities’ powers to conduct various forms of secret surveillance
in electronic communications.
In Chapter 2 Bernard Enjolras and Kari Steen-Johnsen discuss the social and
normative conditions for the freedom of speech in Norway, based on a representative
survey of the population. They ask which types of utterances are seen as
acceptable on different arenas in Norway, and whether certain groups are more
likely to withhold their own opinion, out of fear of offending others or of being
exposed to ridicule. Their analysis shows that the Norwegian population tends to
balance the value of the freedom of speech against other social values, such as
the value of protecting vulnerable groups and of not offending or harming particular
groups or religions. There is a high degree of consensus on the balance of
values: a majority chooses the middle standpoints. A clear distinction is made
between the private and the public spheres, and more is seen as normatively
Status for ytringsfriheten i Norge – Fritt Ords monitorprosjekt