The Norwegian Ministry of Culture reaffirmed its indirect control over the broadcast media last December, when it denied renewal of Radio P4's concession, which will expire at the end of 2003, to run the only commercial and national radio channel in the country. The stated reason was that another company, Kanal 4, was simply a better applicant, and renewal was never intended to be automatic anyway, so why are you making such a big fuss about it? Translated, P4 had become too commercial, too low-brow, for government tastes, with its heavy focus on music and not very serious talk shows. (P4 has a reputation as the channel taxi drivers listen to when they're not harassing their passengers with patented taxi driver insights.)

Kanal 4, on the other hand, promised news in depth, documentaries and high culture. It used all the right public broadcasting buzzwords. This struck gold among our visionary bureaucrats and the Christian People's Party minister, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. The unexpected decision to revoke P4's concession and give it to Kanal 4 continued what I had hoped was a dying way of thinking about national broadcasting: that it should serve a political purpose - not in the individual cases, but in its overall profile. Many decades of state monopoly in broadcasting has made our politicians see the broadcasting spectrum not merely as a limited resource that needs to be administrated by the state, but as their very own property, which they can lend to us and take back at will. The Ministry of Culture gives and the Ministry of Culture takes away, blessed be the Ministry of Culture.

It didn't end there, however. Radio P4 had in its ten years of operation become financially successful, and even politicians know not to let a profitable broadcasting company go to waste. Its hard enough to survive in broadcasting even without bureaucrats butting into your choice of music, so a proven success is valuable. Today, P4 was granted a concession to run P5, a new, national, commercial radio station, which will go on the air on January 1st. Again, the stated reason is that P4's was the best applicant, that it promised the "greatest variation and breadth" in its programs.

More likely the Ministry now believes that P4 has learned its lesson. P4 has been warned repeatedly since it went online for violating the terms of its concession - terms that limit the time it can spend on commercials, foreign music, and music in general - but with little effect. P4 has (somewhat arrogantly) taken its concession for granted, and insisted on making radio for people, not for politicians. Its application for P5, however, reveals a new attitude. On second thought, those Public Broadcasting ideals weren't so bad after all. P4 now promised more news and politics, more culture, more Norwegian music, news in Sami (for real, this time!), more programs for youths, and similar things that likely warmed the Minister's heart enough for her to, in her kindness, give P4 a second chance. No hard feelings, as long as we know who's the boss, right? (No word yet on whether the agreement involves Silje Stang etching "I will not tell the Minister of Culture to burn in hell" on the back of her hand.)

The end result? Strengthened government control over national broadcasting media. I see no reason to be euphemistic about this. There is no direct editorial control over the national media, of course - not even over state-owned NRK - no telling what to say and mean - but there is an indirect control over the editorial profile of all the four national broadcasters, and their three TV channels and five radio channels. P4's attempt to escape that control has now been effectively stopped. It will not try again. That said, P4's survival as P5 is as good news as one could hope for, better than sending a profitable company down the drain, anyway. "Thanks", Valgerd. You've been most gracious. (Now kindly go burn in hell.)

A good, widespread apostasy needs everybody to be on the same page.

I seem to have never heard anything but talking and commercials on P4 anyway.

Excuse my norwengslish, but the trouble is that the by far leading national broadcaster NRK, really has only one sponsor, the Parliament. NRK is vitally dependent for all its privileges and all its money for the continued support from that sponsor. And the only way for NRK to influence its sponsor to continue to get the parliamentary resolution it derives its advantage from is to influence the results of parliamentary elections. It has its existensial economic interests tied to influensing voters to its own advantage.

Bjørn, Bjørn; P4 did not get its renewal because it consistently broke the license demands it had been given a license under - in spite of repeated warnings.

While you and I can disagree heartily in those license demands - as I at least do - the Norwegian authorities had no other choice than following them; meaning that they had to give the license to someone they had larger belief would be able to fulfill them.

So, please do not play the blame game. For once Valgerd Svarstad Haugland did not have much of a choice; she had to be a moralist asshole.

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