The case in summary: Two professors, one retired, associated with UiT went to Russia on holiday, despite official travel advice. Professor Urban Wråkberg claims that a social gathering during the journey was presented as an official event by the organizers afterwards. PST warns against individuals at Norwegian institutions putting their own private assessments ahead of the institution’s guidelines in contact with Russia. The UiT management was not aware of the professors’ participation in the events in Russia. Both professors claim that the trip was of a private nature, and that they did not represent UiT. The university believes that the trip was more extensive than a private trip. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – Although in current policy towards Russia there is an opening for researcher-to-researcher collaboration, the assessments for what constitutes a possible breach of the sanctions regulations will be the same, says senior communications advisor Eirik Veum at PST. He warns against individual employees at Norwegian universities and institutions putting their own private assessments ahead of the institutions’ own guidelines in their contact with Russia. On Monday, it became known that respectively professor and professor emeritus at UiT Norway’s Arctic University, Urban Wråkberg and Ivar Bjørklund, participated in several events in Russia in June. Eirik Veum is a senior adviser at PST, and fears that Norwegian civil servants may be exploited in Russian propaganda if they put their own assessments ahead of the institutions’ travel advice. Photo: Marius Christensen / news This without the university management knowing about the participation. Professor Urban Wråkberg believes that the organizers of the one event in Murmansk, afterwards presented a social gathering as an official seminar and called it “Barents Dialog”. – “Barents Dialog” – the name is a construction of an individual participant, posted afterwards on Facebook, I have learned today. This was without an agreement with me and without my approval, writes Urban Wråkberg in an email to news on Monday. Presented as a Norwegian delegation The university now believes that the trip was more extensive than a private trip, as Bjørklund claims. news has presented the criticism in the case to Urban Wråkberg and Ivar Bjørklund on Tuesday. Wråkberg has not responded to news’s inquiry. Bjørklund has answered news’s enquiry, but neither wanted to be interviewed nor to respond to the criticism. On Monday, both researchers informed news that the trip was of a private nature, and not as representatives of Norway’s Arctic University. This is how Urban Wråkberg and Ivar Bjørklund were presented in social media following what they describe as a social event in Murmansk. Photo: Screenshot Urban Wråkeberg says the event in Murmansk was a private dinner, even though Ivar Bjørklund told about his work in the truth and reconciliation commission. – It was paid for by the participants who were Norwegian tourists and Russian people who studied or had studied the Norwegian language in Murmansk. Professor Urban Wråkberg believes that the event’s content was presented incorrectly after the meeting. Photo: UiT – Does it mean that you feel exploited in Russian propaganda? – I have never approved of being publicly mentioned in this context, I cannot of course say what it can be used for or should be characterized as, writes Wråkberg. news has been in contact with one of the organizers behind the event in Murmansk. The person does not wish to participate or comment on news’s article. Ivar Bjørklund also believes he was presented in the wrong way by the Russian organizers of the “White June” festival in Arkhangelsk, which was also part of the trip. Bjørklund believes he did not participate on behalf of UiT, but as a private individual. On the website of “White June” it says: “Ivar Bjørklund is an anthropologist, ethnographer, professor of cultural studies at the Norwegian Arctic University in Tromsø” From the “White June” festival program in Arkhangelsk – I said they didn’t have to write it, I’m retired. I clarified that time and time again, that I was not a representative of the university, said Bjørklund to news on Monday. – Very strange Senior adviser in the Helsinki Committee, Aage Borchgrevink, tells news that Norwegian academics who travel to events in Russia are in danger of being taken as income for the war in Ukraine. – I think it is up to everyone to be responsible for the situation in Russia, and show solidarity with everyone who is imprisoned and chased out of the country. Especially Norwegian academics who benefit from academic freedoms and privileges. Borchgrevink questions how Wråkberg and Bjørklund justify their trip to Russia. REACTS: Senior advisor in the Helsinki Committee, Aage Borchgrevink, asks several questions about the researchers’ trip to Russia. Photo: Tom Balgaard / news He points out that there is an ongoing attempt in Russia to restore a “totalitarian state where propaganda permeates everything”, like when President Vladimir Putin was young. – This is a state-supported programme, which is intended to build up a state ideology, that Russia is something separate and magnificent. That is the rationale for the war in Ukraine now, which is characterized by gross crimes and features of genocide, he says, before continuing: – That some Norwegian academics and civil society want to raise this now, I therefore find it very strange. Neither Ivar Bjørklund nor Urban Wråkberg wanted to respond to any of the criticism on Tuesday. Pro-rector for research and development at UiT, Jan-Gunnar Winther. Photo: Eivind Molde / news – More extensive than a private trip When the matter became public knowledge on Monday, the vice-chancellor for research and development at UiT, Jan-Gunnar Winther, stated that the university was not aware of the trip in advance. Furthermore, that employees, if asked about participation in this type of academic event, would be refused by the university. Bjørklund himself has described the journey as a journey as a private person, which the university does not fully agree with. – Regarding the journey to Russia, we consider the scope of the activities, and the type of events they participated in, to be more extensive than what can be defined as a private trip, says Winther to news on Tuesday. At the same time, he emphasizes that the university strives to maintain some contact with the Russians. – But in this context, we consider that it is outside of a researcher-to-researcher collaboration, he says. – How will UiT deal with this? – We are in a phase where we are surveying what actually happened, so that we can get the facts, then we will treat this as a personnel matter. Depending on the facts that we find, we will also have a reaction according to what we consider to be the overall picture of the situation, he says. UiT: Urban Wråkberg and Ivar Bjørklund were respectively professor and professor emeritus at UiT – the Arctic University of Norway. Photo: Sofie Retterstøl Olaisen / news – A little bit Möller’s Tran First emanuensis at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo, Anine Kierulf, does not agree with Winther that an application for travel should end in rejection from UiT. – It is perhaps understandable that the vice-chancellor reacts as he does. He is a sensible guy, but here he has taken a bit too much Möller’s Tran, I think, or read a little too little academic requirements for freedom of expression. DISAGREE: Legal and freedom of expression expert at UiO, and former adviser on freedom of expression issues for the Council of Europe, Anine Kierulf. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / news Kierulf, who has previously been an adviser on freedom of expression issues for the Council of Europe, points out that professors have academic freedom to “represent themselves and no one else”. – Universities have nothing to do with academic boycotts. It is up to the individual academic and the research and teaching environment to assess who they want to collaborate with in truth-seeking service. Norway as a state has also not imposed an academic boycott of Russia on any universities, she says. news draws attention to the fact that Kierulf is on leave from UiO in 2024. This is to be an acting judge in the Borgarting Court of Appeal. PST encourages Norwegian government employees to follow their own institutions’ guidelines. – If a perception is established that there is a difference between the room for action of the institutions versus the room for action of individual researchers, then this increases the danger of Norwegian research being exploited and abused by other countries’ authorities, says Eirik Veum in PST. Published 09/07/2024, at 18.24 Updated 09.07.2024, at 19.32
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PST warns against putting private assessments ahead of official travel advice to Russia – news Troms and Finnmark
