According to KS directors news has spoken to, the debate article which is printed in a number of Norwegian newspapers was written by people in the communications department. It is then sent out to the directors in the various counties. They have then signed it as their own post and sent it to the local newspapers. – The aim of the post is to bring out KS’s opinions and arguments about the teachers’ strike. We want to achieve this through various advocates in different parts of the country. – But won’t the reader believe that the regional director who signed the post also wrote it? – No, I think those who read it understand that this is KS’s view. That’s what Jan Inge Krossli says, who is communications advisor at the Central Association of Municipalities (KS). He emphasizes that the directors are responsible for what appears in the debate submission. According to Krossli, this also makes it easier for the local directors to answer questions that come after the post has been published. – The organizations must stop signing the same debate post with different names, says editor in Trønderdebatt, Snorre Valen. Photo: Klara Skovro Thoresen – Klønete Editor in Trønderdebatt, Snorre Valen, has little sense of the method KS has used to get its message out about the teachers’ strike. He will not publish it in the Trønder regional newspapers of which Trønderdebatt is a part. – One must assume that the regional directors in KS are able to produce articles locally, if they are to sign with their own names. This is clumsy and unnecessary, says Valen. He believes that an article written centrally could have been signed by a central shop steward or director and sent to several newspapers. Valen also wrote a comment in Trønderdebatt on Tuesday where he explains why he does not publish the post from KS. He writes that it is very “harry” of KS to state different author names on exactly the same text, in order to give the readers and newspapers around the country the impression that the text is unique. – They have to stop doing this, says Valen to news. – It is important that we go out with the same message, says regional director in Møre and Romsdal, Gunnar Bendixen. Photo: Gunnar Sandvik / news Must have the same message Gunnar Bendixen, one of the regional directors who has signed the post. He believes it is important that those who are parties to a strike present the same message and that this is one of the reasons why it has done so in this way. The regional director in Møre and Romsdal believes they are signing the debate entry on behalf of the entire organisation. – Someone may read it and think I wrote the post. But those who follow the case and are close to the organizations understand that this is a joint document, says Bendixen to news. Want to avoid misunderstandings Regional director in Trøndelag, Anniken Kjær-Haraldsen, believes it is a strength that KS is united in such a matter. – We are in a demanding situation and it is important to avoid misunderstandings. That is why it is important that we are aligned in our message, says Haraldsen, who emphasizes that she would not have signed if she did not stand for what was written there. She does not take the fact that Valen chooses not to publish the post on Trønderdebatt too seriously. She believes that is up to them, but believes it is then important that they treat similar types of posts in the same way. Sends out information – not finished scripts KS’s counterpart in the teachers’ strike, the Norwegian Confederation of Education, states that they never send out scripts that county leaders or local team leaders can sign and use as their own articles in the newspapers. – In my twelve years as communications manager at the Norwegian Education Association, we have never sent out finished scripts for debate submissions to the union representatives, says Rikke Bjurstrøm. Photo: Uddanningsforbundet But according to communications manager Rikke Bjurstrøm, they send out information that can be used as a basis for local debate posts. It can be a numerical basis, core messages, suggestions for examples they can find locally or topics they think the local teams should write about. – I recognize phrases or messages we have used centrally. Figures we have given them, for example on the shortage of teachers locally. But the local shop stewards must write the posts themselves, says Bjurstrøm to news. Not the first time it has happened KS is not the first organization to receive criticism for having published almost identical texts in the newspapers signed with different names. Five months before the election last year, several Conservative politicians did the same The debate post was signed by different politicians in the party, but the content was very similar. They received criticism from, among others, a political commentator in Avisa Nordland. He then said that this is nonsense and that the politicians must be able to write their own debate posts. For the record: Snorre Valen is also chairman of the Broadcasting Council. A publicly appointed advisory body that follows news closely.
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KS directors signed debate articles they had not written – news Trøndelag
