On Friday, it became known that the Attorney General believes Viggo Kristiansen is innocent and must be acquitted of the murder and rape in the Baneheia case. Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) were found murdered and raped in 2000. Svein Tore Bergestuen has made a podcast about the Baneheia case. Photo: Privat The former comrades Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen were both convicted in the case. But Kristiansen has always claimed that he was innocent. Ever since the verdict was announced, Kristiansen has tried several times to get the case brought up in the Retrial Commission, before he was finally successful and was later released in 2021. Bergestuen believes the media’s coverage may have affected Kristiansen’s opportunity to have his case reopened. – What separates the good from the bad in the press is that you don’t bother to get involved. What hits the hardest is the commentary journalism that has characterized this case, where Bergestuen claims to have been completely firm throughout, with no interest in getting involved in the case. This is the Baneheia case * Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) were raped and killed in Baneheia in Kristiansand on 19 May 2000. They were found two days later. * Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen were sentenced respectively to 21 years’ detention (10 years’ minimum) and 19 years’ imprisonment for the rape and murder of the two girls. * Andersen confessed – Kristiansen has always claimed that he is innocent * The commission for resumption of criminal cases had the case on its table for the seventh time in the summer of 2017. * In February 2021, the commission decided that Viggo Kristiansen will have a new trial of the criminal case. Believes journalists are too dependent on the police Kjersti Løken Stavrum from the Freedom of Expression Commission believes that journalists should be given access to more information during an investigation. They will thus be more independent of the police in the coverage of criminal cases. – In today’s situation, you as a journalist are completely dependent on someone in the police leaking documents and information. That puts journalists in a difficult role, says Stavrum, and adds: – Then it is not easy to get an overview of the material and it is also not easy to be critical of those on whom you depend for documents and information. That situation must be changed after the Baneheia case. Kjersti Løken Stavrum is head of the Freedom of Expression Commission and Norwegian PEN. Bergestuen agrees with Stavrum. He is now calling for an investigation into the media’s coverage of the case. According to Bergestuen, Baneheia is primarily Norway’s biggest legal scandal, judicial scandal and a judicial murder. – But there are also parts of the press coverage that we have to correct, says Bergestuen, who explains that the prerequisite for being able to do that is that we have to learn from it. – And if we are to learn from it, we must first find out what we did wrong. And then an investigation is required. Urges the media to self-evaluate Elin Floberghagen, secretary general of the Norwegian Press Association, agrees that the media should scrutinize themselves in their coverage of the case. She sees that many newsrooms are already underway. – I think that is good, and I want to encourage all newsrooms that have covered the case to do so. Elin Floberghagen, secretary general of the Norwegian Press Association, encourages newsrooms to carry out a self-evaluation of the coverage of the Baneheia case. Photo: Norwegian Press Association But the Press Association does not envisage that they will review everything published in the last 22 years. Nevertheless, they are planning a larger meeting where they will discuss the overall questions and learning points in the case. – There is a lot we can learn, but I will not be extremely specific right now because we have to go through this and spend time making these evaluations. To news, the editors’ association says that media coverage of the Baneheia case will be a central topic at the association’s autumn meeting.
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– The Norwegian media failed during the Baneheia case – news Culture and entertainment
