A record 255 entries in the Fritt Ord Foundation Competition for Upper Secondary School

March 6 2018

1 March was the deadline for entering the Fritt Ord Foundation Competition for Upper Secondary School. The theme of this year’s competition was “Propaganda”, and entries have covered a variety of genres: audio, video and online productions, essays and articles.

Never before have we received so many entries for the competition. Three hundred participants are behind the 255 entries submitted. Sixty of them are media productions in the form of documentary films, audio productions, comic strips, posters, photographs, etc. The texts include articles, essays and feature articles among the genres, as well as poems and short stories.

This year’s assignment was to describe one or more cases of propaganda. Pupils were encouraged to be specific, taking their point of departure in the local community, in Norway or in the world, either at present or in the past. What is needed for something to be deemed ‘propaganda’? Many of the entries addressed the major ideologies of the 20th century, North Korea, Trump and fake news, although topics such as body shaming, advertising and influencing in western democracies were also analysed and discussed.

Hard work and great effort were invested in very single entry, and Fritt Ord would like to thank all those who submitted projects. We are looking forward to evaluating and judging the entries. This year, the best text and the best media production will be named, and each of the winners will receives a grant of NOK 20 000. In addition, the prize laureates will win a study tour to Strasbourg, where they will visit the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Parliament.

This year’s jury is made up of Jostein Saxegaard, Amal Aden, Lene Julsen, Lars Laird Iversen and earlier prize laureate Iver Jensen. Participants will be notified of the results of the judging in March.

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Call for nominations: Free Media Awards 2025

March 14 2025

In collaboration with the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS of Hamburg, the Fritt Ord Foundation has allocated the Free Media Awards annually since 2004 to Eastern European journalists and media that defy every obstacle to tirelessly ensure independent press coverage. Russia’s war against Ukraine and the subsequent wave of disinformation clearly demonstrates the need for independent reporting in the region. Journalist, editorial teams and media companies in and from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine and Hungary who make a contribution to press freedom through their investigative, independent reporting can be nominated for the Free Media Awards.

Civitates' Tech & Democracy open call

March 6 2025

Civitates – The European Democracy Fund is a pooled philanthropic fund that was set up in 2018 for the sole purpose of addressing democratic decline and closing civic space in Europe. The case for confronting these threats is growing increasingly urgent. Fritt Ord Foundation is one of the initiators and partners of Civitates.

Civitates has launched its Tech and Democracy open call to support organisations working to ensure safer, more inclusive online spaces (social media platforms, search engines etc.) by improving the enforcement of EU tech regulations at the national level.

This open call offers a unique opportunity to strengthen civil society’s role in holding the tech sector accountable, with a focus on key EU regulations such as the Digital Services Act, GDPR, AI Act or the European Media Freedom Act to name a few.

Norwegians increasingly more positive to computer games

March 5 2025

Norwegians are increasingly more positive to accepting computer games as culture

About 17 per cent have developed a more favourable view of computer games over the past year. Six of ten play computer games, and one of three plays computer games weekly. At the same time, computer games are ranked as having lower status than books and music, for example.
“Computer games deserve more attention and discussion”, contends Joakim Lie of Fritt Ord.

– Computer games are also art

March 4 2025

“The problem with far too many media reports about computer games is that they start begin with sentences like: ‘computer games have come a long way since Pac-Man’,” sighs American computer game critic Jacob Geller.

“Let us first simply agree that computer games are indeed an art form and an expression of culture, and then let us examine the works as part of the history of art and culture.