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The Norwegian ban on political advertising on TV will be upheld. This was made clear by the Norwegian Government in an announcement of 11 March 2009, where the Government also stated that it did not intend to appeal the European Court of Human Right’s (ECHR) judgment in the case of TV Vest AS and Rogaland Pensjonistparti v. Norway (see IRIS 2009-3: 2) to the Court’s Grand Chamber. Instead, the Government proposes changes to the remit of the Norsk rikskringkasting AS (Norwegian public service broadcaster - NRK) that should allow access for small political parties to the TV media. In its ruling,...

On 24 February 2009, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made public its latest reports on Bulgaria, Hungary and Norway, adopted in the fourth round of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2008-4: 6, IRIS 2006-6: 4 and IRIS 2005-7: 3). In respect of Bulgaria, ECRI encourages the State authorities to “make the media aware, without undermining their editorial independence, of the need to ensure that the information they provide does not help to breed...

On 11 December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment regarding a ban on political advertising on television. The crucial question the Court had to decide was whether a blanket ban on political advertisements on TV, as it was applied in Norway, was to be considered “necessary in a democratic society'” within the meaning of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In principle, there is little scope under Article 10 of the Convention for restrictions on political speech or on debate on questions of public interest. However, a ban on paid political...

The holder of the licence to the nationwide Digital Terrestrial Television Network (DTT) in Norway, Norges Televisjon AS (NTV), is subject to a term obliging it to provide access to a second independent Pay-TV operator. But the amount of capacity out of the total of five multiplexes that should be reserved for the second Pay-TV operator in order to ensure competition on the platform has not been made at all clear. The issue has caused a battle between, on the one side, NTV and the existing Pay TV operator, RiksTV AS, which have common shareholders (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, TV2 AS and...

On 14 March 2008, the Norwegian Media Authority granted a license to an association named Foreningen Frikanalen for transmission of a non-commercial public access TV channel (also called “open channel”) in the digital terrestrial network in Norway. The channel has a must carry status and is expected to start broadcasting in September this year. Foreningen Frikanalen is open to all non-commercial and non-governmental organisations, which base their activities on voluntary work. As of today, Foreningen Frikanalen has 50 direct members and 130 associated members. However, according to the license...