– Regardless of whether they have realized whether the media in Norway are independent or not, they have long had an interest in portraying it as if they are not. Because they fit into the narrative that the West wants to destroy Russia. That’s what senior researcher Julie Wilhelmsen at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy says. She believes it is difficult to know whether Russia believes its own propaganda when they say that the authorities in the Nordic countries control public broadcasters such as news. Senior researcher Julie Wilhelmsen draws parallels between Russia’s actions against the media and actions against human rights organisations. Photo: Simen Hunding Strømme / news Wilhelmsen points out that there is a conspiracy theory from Russia that the West, controlled from Washington, will destroy Russia by all possible means. – Part of the Western “trick” is to say that their own institutions are independent, but really they are not. This conspiracy is a central part of the Kremlin’s propaganda, and it has become stronger and stronger – especially after the war in Ukraine started, says Wilhelmsen. The documentary Shadow War is a collaboration between news, Swedish SVT, Finnish YLE and Danish DR Photo: news – Talking to their own The background is news’s collaboration with the Nordic public broadcasters. In the documentary “The Shadow War”, news has mapped how Russian shipping traffic can be used for espionage in the Nordics. On Friday, the answer came from Russia. They believe it is obvious that it is the authorities in the Nordic countries who are really behind the project. Carl Henrik Knutsen, professor of political science at the University of Oslo, believes that Russia can achieve several things by making such claims. – One is that you speak to both the domestic audience and the international audience. One always wants to legitimize one’s actions. But he also believes that such plans are part of long-term thinking. – When Russia reacts very harshly to tricks and politicizes documentaries, it can be a way of achieving self-censorship. The purpose is for journalists to think twice before doing something like this again, says Knutsen. The then leader Torbjørn Jagland placed the Nobel medal in the empty chair during the awarding of the peace prize in 2010. Peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned in China until his death in 2016. Photo: news When China broke contact When the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 received the Nobel peace price, China broke political ties with Norway. Carl Henrik Knutsen thinks it is most likely that Russia knows they are lying. Photo: PRIO In 2010, then Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had no doubt that China knew that the peace prize did not come from the Norwegian government, but from an independent committee. It still took six years before contact was resumed and the relationship eventually normalised. Carl Henrik Knutsen, who among other things researches dictatorships, believes there is a good opportunity for countries such as Russia and China to understand that the institutions of Western countries are independent. – I think there is a lot of conspiracy thinking in countries like Russia and China. That one looks for underlying motives. But when that has been said, I think it is most likely to believe that this is propaganda, he says. “One system in the West” Senior researcher Julie Wilhelmsen believes that Russia’s portrayal of Norwegian media has a parallel to how they portray Western human rights organizations that criticize dictatorships such as Russia. That they are not really independent. – It may be that they understand that the systems in, for example, Norway are different from Russia. Nevertheless, it will portray that the West is one entity and the Western institutions are one entity. That people in the western countries go in step in a campaign against Russia. Watch the first episode of the Shadow War here: The journalists receive a list of suspected Russian spies. Why is there a military radio on a Russian trawler? What happened to the Svalbard cable?
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– A central part of the Kremlin’s propaganda – news Troms and Finnmark
