This week, the majority in the Storting went so far as to convey “its deepest regret for the abuses the Norwegianization policy entailed for Sami, Kven/Norwegian Finns and Skog Finns”. This is an absolutely necessary step in the work towards real reconciliation for national minorities who have been subjected to abuse by the Norwegian state.
NRK cannot be privy to this case.
This does not mean that we have finished with difficult issues surrounding national minorities. Unfortunately, we have rather seen an escalation of the inflamed question of who can rightfully be in the Sami number in recent years. Here, NRK has now contributed to making things worse.
Sandra Borch (Sp), parliamentary representative and former cabinet minister, has been the subject of apparently investigative journalism. Scandalously enough, NRK’s news journalists have set out to find out whether Borch is actually Sami, or whether she is “cheating” about her Sami origins.
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On the occasion of the case, NRK appointed two genealogists to check Borch’s ethnicity to find out whether she is a legitimate member of the Sami Parliament’s electorate. Four other, unnamed people were subjected to the same treatment.
The background here is a conflict between different Sami communities. The traditional reindeer-herding Sami are mostly united in the Norwegian Sami National Union (NSR), and have long been an important power factor in the Sami Parliament. In recent years, many have rediscovered a sense of pride in their Sami background and signed up for the census.
Many of these “newcomers” believe that the NSR is too conservative and, among other things, stands in the way of business development in Sami areas. It is also claimed that the NSR’s definition of Sami origin is too narrow. Many of the critical voices gather in the party Nordkalottfolket, which has grown greatly.
It is this power struggle that NRK enters into when the channel uses editorial resources to investigate whether Sandra Borch is “Same enough” to deserve to be on the electoral roll. There are many indications that the state channel has allowed itself to be used in internal power struggles.
Borch expresses that this hunt for her ancestry hurts. We have a great understanding of that. NRK goes far beyond popular custom and press ethics in this matter.
NRK cannot be privy to this matter, and must apologize to Borch.
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