Norway

[NO] Action Against Violence in the Media

IRIS 1995-5:1/23

Trygve Panhoff

Norwegian Board of Film Classification

The Norwegian Government has recently launched an action plan against violence shown in the media. The plan has a dual approach, focussing on the one hand on stricter regulations and on the other hand on information and education.

Four Conferences on the issue took place in Oslo, Kristianstad, Tromsö and Trondheim in the beginning of May. Two others will take place at the end of September in Stavanger and Bergen. The action plan is a joint initiative of the Ministries of Culture and the Ministry of Justice, assisted by the Ministry of Children and Families and the Ministry of Education. The State support for the action plan for 1995 will be around Nkr 6.5 million, shared by the two ministries that proposed the framework of the action plan. The project manager is Ms Liv-Jorunn Kolnes. She can be contacted for further information at fax number +47 22 348070.

On 1 February 1995, the Norwegian Ministry of Culture changed the rules concerning the portrayal of violence on video cassettes. Such video cassettes used to be subject to Section 382 of the Penal Code but were now subjected to the same criteria as cinematographic films, i.e., to the Act on Cinema and Video Films ( Lov om film af videogram) 1987. This implies that violent acts portrayed on video cassettes which do not infringe Section 382 of the Penal Code may no longer be shown on video, but they may still be shown on television. Therefore, pressure groups are now arguing for similar strict criteria for television. As a result, some channels have already become rather cautious and tend to take the Act on Cinema and Video Films as a lead to avoid criticism. The portrayal of pornography will continue to be subject to Section 211 of the Penal Code.