In a statement from Kvensk Finnish Riksforbund, general secretary Rune Bjerkli criticizes news for the coverage of the truth and reconciliation commission’s report. Among other things, the association is critical of the fact that the Kven language was given too little space in relation to the Sami language in the coverage of the handover of the report. news has a great understanding that there are great expectations attached to both the results of the commission’s work and the media’s coverage of this. There is much of what Bjerkli writes that we do not recognize. news has no agenda against Kven/Norwegian-Finnish, as one can get the impression of through the article. On the contrary, we are happy with the mission we have linked to the minorities in Norway, and take it very seriously. We nevertheless agree that we could have highlighted Kven better in our national spaces on the day the comprehensive report was presented to the Storting. However, there was ample coverage of the Kven perspective both before, during and after the presentation on our various surfaces. We are also working well with the criticism that the report now receives, as well as with follow-up of concrete measures at the back of the report. The Norwegianization of the Sami and Kven/Finnish population is a dark chapter in Norwegian history. And the state unfortunately “succeeds” particularly well in the Sea Sami and Kven/Finnish areas. As Bjerkli himself points out, today there are few contemporary witnesses to this planned clean-up of the Kven/Norwegian-Finnish language and culture. The Sami culture survived better. For the Kvens/Norwegian Finns and the Forest Finns, the road to revitalization of language and culture is unfortunately longer and more difficult. news’s mission relates to the Kven/Norwegian-Finnish minority, and to the Sami as an indigenous people. Kvensk Finnish Riksforbund wants news to promote and produce content in and about Finnish for the Kven population. The association believes that news’s choice of language services for the Kven/Norwegian-Finnish ethnic group is based on membership numbers in interest organisations. This is of course not the case. news’s mission is defined by the Storting. Paragraph 16 of the news poster describes the mission to the Sami population and minority groups in Norway. Regarding minorities and minority languages, it is said that; “news must have programs for national and linguistic minorities as well as content for sign language speakers”. Paragraph 19 further states: “news must also offer content in Sami languages, national minority languages and sign languages”. Kvensk is recognized as a separate language by the Norwegian authorities, and is one of our minority languages. news is aware that parts of the Kven/Norwegian-Finnish community in Norway believe that Finnish should be the preferred language of instruction in Kven communities. This has not been the case, and thus news’s mission is linked to the Kven language, not Finnish. The Sámi have formal status as indigenous people in Norway, which is also reflected in the mission of news. Therefore, there is also a difference in the offer for the Sami population and the Kven/Norwegian-Finnish population. We are nevertheless proud that in just a few years we have built up a separate offer for the Kven population, news.no/kvensk, where we publish both news and other journalism in Norwegian and Kven. In parallel, we are working to promote this content also to the national news program and websites.
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The Norwegianization of Kvener deserves great attention – Ytring
