Staff

JMIC staff:

Ellen Hofsvang, Project leader. Worked as journalist and editor, specializing international development, environment and human rights issues. Also long experience from international work in NGOs. MSc in Human Geogrphy, UiO.

Portrait of Elisabeth Eide.

Elisabeth Eide, Professor of journalism studies, specialist in transnational media studies, conflict journalism, gender and media, media and climate change etc. Long experience from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan.

Portrait of Abeer Saady.

Safety trainer and consultant: Abeer Saady is a journalist, researcher, media consultant and trainer, with 27 years of professional experience in conflict zones in the Middle East. Main fields of training are: Safety of journalists, Conflict Sensitive Reporting, Ethics for reporters and photographers, dealing with radical groups (especially Islamic State), Self-regulation and establishing codes of ethics, Diversity and media, and Capacity building training.

Resource persons:

Portrait of Gerald Walulya.

Gerald Walulya, Ph.D, is the Coordinator of JMIC activities at Makerere University in Uganda. He is also a Lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communication at the same university. His areas of teaching and research include political communication, media and governance and print media journalism. Before joining the academia, he previously worked as a Political Reporter at Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper.

Portrait of Elsebeth Frey.

Elsebeth Frey is leading JMICs project “The rig on press freedom”. She is Professor of journalism studies. Her interests are crisis and conflict journalism, journalistic core values, press freedom and the role of journalism in democracy and processes of democratization. She also teaches online journalism in news and feature. She has worked closely with journalism scholars, students and journalists from Tunisia, Bangladesh and Palestine, and cooperates with journalism studies at IUT in Cannes. Part of a network of academic fellows at Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.  Background as a journalist for 25 years.

Portrait of Mathias Bohlin Falch.

Mathias Bohlin Falch is a freelance writer and part-time lecturer at online journalism courses at OsloMet. His areas of interest are digital media, languages and freedom of the press. He has been able to teach and work on the latter teaming with JMIC member Elsebeth Frey in conducting the Rig on press freedom in Norway as well as other countries.

Portrait of Jon Petter Evensen.

Jon Petter Evensen, Assistant Professor, BA in photojournalism at OsloMet since 2000. Has conducted photojournalism courses and trainings for students, independent journalists and photojournalists in countries like Belarus, Azerbajdsjan and Ukraine – as well as experience working with NGOs such as BBC Media Action and IREX Europe.

Portrait of Tarjei Leer-Salvesen.

Tarjei Leer-Salvesen is an active investigative reporter, who also gives training in journalistic method. He has 20 years of background from print media and documentary film research, and specialize in search in public archives. He can help with issues like: How do you make best use searchable records? How can we make them, when they are not available to us? And how do you use the Right To Information-tools across borders?

Portrait of Maren sæbø.


Maren Sæbø
 is a freelance journalist based in Norway but with a special focus on Africa. She has gained several awards for her reporting from the continent in Norwegian media.  She holds a Masters degree in History from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban South Africa.

Portrait of Bente Kalsnes.

Bente Kalsnes, Dr. Art. Associate Professor, Dept. of Journalism and Media Studies, OsloMet. Specialises in studies about digital journalism, social media, political communication, populism, media manipulation. Kalsnes is teaching courses related to online journalism, journalistic innovation and social media, as well as online political communication

 Portrait of Helge Rønning.

Helge Rønning, Senior Advisor. Professor Emeritus, University of Oslo, specialist in media and democratic developments, freedom of expression and the press, decades of experience from and research in Africa.

Portrait of Kristin Skare Orgeret.

Kristin Skare Orgeret, Dr. Art, Professor of media and journalism studies. Specialises in studies of journalism in conflict and democratisation processes, gender, intercultural communication and foreign news. She has worked with media and journalism, teaching and research in many countries, mainly in Africa and Asia.

Portrait of Hasina Shirzad.

Hasina Shirzad, Advisor. BA in Journalism from Kabul University. Has worked for a wide range of Afghan media, and for the Election Commission of Afghanistan.

Portrait of Rune Ottosen.

Rune Ottosen is professor of journalism studies at JM since 1999 and specializes in studies of globalization, war and peace journalism. He has also written extensively on press history and conducts a transnational program focusing on journalism security.

Portrait of Heidi Røsok-Dahl.

Heidi Røsok-Dahl, associate professor at OsloMet, has worked for ten years as a video journalist, teaches videojournalism, dramaturgy and storytelling at OsloMet.

Portrait of Birgitte Kjos Fonn.

 Birgitte Kjos Fonn is Professor of journalism and media studies at Oslo Metropolitan University. Fonn holds a PhD in History and has i. a. published monographs about Cold War journalism and the history of the Norwegian journalism education. She is Editor of the refereed Mediehistorisk Tidsskrift (Norwegian Journal of Media History), and one of the leaders of the research group Media Narration Group (MNG, previously Index) at Oslo Metropolitan University. She is also responsible for OsloMet’s non-fiction MA programme. A former journalist with specialisation in foreign news and economic journalism and with degrees in sociology and political economy, she has also published several contributions about political and economic journalism.

Portrait of Harald Hornmoen.

Harald Hornmoen, professor of journalism, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, OsloMet. Specialist areas: the role of science in journalism and society, risk communication, critical discourse analysis. Coordinates international research project RESCUE about the use of social media in crisis communication/journalism. He also coordinates INDEX, a research group investigating the exposure of individuals in journalism.

Portrait of Trond Idås.

Trond Idås is a PhD Fellow at Åbo Akademi University, Finland, and a special advisor on safety, trauma and working environment for the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NUJ). His research focus is on posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic stress related to safety, threats and hate speech. He has been working on these topics for NUJ, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. He is teaching and giving training in safety and trauma at several schools of journalism and conferences/seminars for professional journalists. He is a former news journalist.

Portrait of Hanene Zbiss.

Hanene Zbiss has has produced several journalistic investigations in Tunisia and in Iraq, and has received  awards like Samir Kassir Awards in 2014 and Third Award by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) in 2012. Actually, she is a trainer in investigative journalism and a coach with ARIJ and NIRIJ (Network of Iraqi Reporters for Investigative Journalism). She coordinates programs on investigative journalism in Tunisia, and  is co-founder of the Tunisian Association for Investigative Journalism (TAIJ). Zbiss teaches investigative journalism in the Press Institute and Sciences of Information (IPSI) in Tunis.

Portrait of Ole Dag Kvamme.

Ole Dag Kvamme is a Norwegian researcher and freelance journalist.  Kvamme holds a masters degree in political science from University of Oslo. He has worked as a news journalist for several Norwegians newspapers since 1993. Based in Kristiansand, his current projects relates to travels to Middle East for feature stories, and metajournalism in Norway.

Portrait of Anass Bendrift.

Anass Bendrif specialises in storytelling and the design and implementation of training focused on using stories for change.  He is experienced in capacity building for media organizations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).  Anass has given many trainings in investigative journalism in the MENA region and Africa. He has created and produced various viral campaigns on media for change. His work has been broadcasted by many international media outlets, including Aljazeera Documentary and Al-Arabi TV and the Dutch public TV broadcaster. 

Portrait of Mohammed Alayoubi.

Mohammed Alayoubi is a journalist in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). He has worked as a journalist in conflict areas and investigative journalism since 2004.  Mohammed covered the Arab Spring in Tunis, Egypt, Libya and Syria, and has worked in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. He has produced reports about IS and revealed human trafficking networks between Turkey and Europe.  Alayoubi has received several prizes

portrait, robert

Robert W.Vaagan, dr.philos., is Professor of Media Studies, Journalism and Intercultural Communication.
He has extensive international experience in his fields, not least as President (2017-19) of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies and as Visiting Professor at Stuttgart Media University, Germany, Oct 2019 – Feb 2020.

Maria Konow-Lund, Associate Professor journalism studies, TV- and broadcasting, author and specialist in transnational media studies, conflict journalism, terror and media coverage, innovation and entrepreneurship of media. Etc. Long experience as Norwegian Broadcasting, and with documentary making.  

Farid A. F. Abudheir (Dr.) Abudheir is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication & Digital Media at An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. He is interested in researching in Palestinian and Arab media, the coverage of Palestinian cause, Islamic movements in media, and media ethics.

Assoc. Prof. Mahmud Farjami is a visiting scholar at Oslomet. He is writer, journalist, translator and humor scholar, and has published 14 books and hundreds of essays in press, so far. His book Iranian Political Satirists (JB, Amsterdam, 2017) is one of the rare academic studies in the field. He has Computer Engineering, Philosophy, and Communications as academic background. Mahmud, as well, performs stand-up comedy with socio-political themes and has been frequently hosted by international and Persian media, like BBC Persian. Right before the pandemic, he designed and taught 7.5 units elective course “Stand-up Comedy in Theory and Practice” at Hoyskolen Kristiania (Oslo).

More about him, on his personal website: Farja.me