Golden Pig at DOK19

Shahidul Alam from Pathshala and David Engmo, student at OsloMet

Students from four countries opened an exhibition and launched a book with fresh images from China – Golden Pig – during DOK19 in Fredrikstad 24 May.

In his opening remarks, Shahidul Alam, the founder of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Bangladesh, drew the line back to the start of the cooperation with partners in Norway around twenty years ago.

Afterwards a new cooperation agreement with Pathshala was signed by Marja Lundell, the Director of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Oslo Metropolitan University, present at the opening in Fredrikstad.

One student and one teacher came from photo.circle in Nepal, from Pathshala in Bangladesh and from Mino Art Center in China – to celebrate with ten Norwegian students, friends and colleagues.

Most of them were participants at DOK19  – a national festival  for documentary photography and photojournalism running from 23 until 25 May.

The exhibition outside the House of Literature

Students from China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Norway meeting again

Marja Lundell from OsloMet with Shahidul Alam from Pathshala

 

 

 

 

No platforming and free expression

JMICs two-day conference on the above topic took place earlier this week, with appr. 30 speakers and panellists. The participants represented a diversity of views and experiences, which was demonstrated both by the Scandinavian variety when it comes to the #metoo campaign and treatment of right-wing extremists, to a discussion on the invitation of Steve Bannon to the Nordic Media Days in Bergen. Experiences from countries where giving platform to extremists entails mainstreaming terrorists (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, etc.) were exchanged. War reporters discussed the challenge of embedding and giving voice to jihadists. And a lively conversation with Peter Münster from Facebook took place after screening the film “The Cleaners”.

Keynote speaker Eric Heinze discussed in-depth arguments for and against No platforming.

A short text cannot pay justice to such a full program. The organizers will consider a publication from this conference.

 

PRESS FREEDOM DAY

The department of journalism and media studies supported by JMIC today honoured the Press Freedom day with a keynote on cartoons and free expression, a panel discussion and a film screening. Even if Norway is top ranked in the annual list from Reporters Without Borders, the panel mentioned several issues of concern, such as threats and harassment against journalists, political propositions which limit access to information and journalist autonomy, and surveillance. These factors also open for more journalists exercising a proportion of self censorship, which is a frightening development.

Sidsel Avlund from NRK (Public Broadcasting) presented a survey showing that almost a third of their journalists (29 percent) had experienced harassment, threats etc., and that many of them did not even speak about this to others.

Panel from left to right: Arne Jensen, President of Norwegian Editors Union; Per Elvestuen, Director of Oslo Freedom Forum and cartoonist; Elin Floberghagen, Norwegian Press Association; and Sidsel Avlund, from the Norwegian Public Broadcasting, responsible for journalist safety.

Global Journalism: Conflict, Safety and Peace

This year’s Master course in Global Journalism: Conflict, Safety and Peace at the OsloMet Metropolitan University had students from Russia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Estonia, Morocco and Norway.

During three intense weeks in Norway filled with lectures, visits to Aftenposten and NRK, cultural program and the yearly conference of The Norwegian Foundation for a Free and Investigative Press (SKUP, Stiftelsen for en Kritisk og Undersøkende Presse) the students discussed safety and security, extremism, migration and more, from different angels and experiences.

The course, Global Journalism: Conflict, Safety and Peace, aims at developing advanced competence when it comes to critical research traditions related to post-colonial studies, for example Orientalism and Occidentalism critique, theories of nation and identities, migrancy and transnationalism. Students will also acquire competence in analyzing the links between globalization processes and ethnical dimensions within and between nations and regions. The role of safety for journalists covering war and conflicts is central to the course.

at the skup conference in Tønsberg

Visiting Afteposten

Sabahat Afsheen presenting the situastion for media in Pakistan

At Afteposten

Carlos Parede, Insonesia, at the Skup Conference

Awais Hameed presenting the mediascape in Pakistan

At the Nordic Black Theatre “After the dream”