Norwegian Media Authority

Norwegian Media Authority

Type	Government agency
Industry	Authority
Founded	1 January 2005
Headquarters	Fredrikstad, Norway
Area served	Norway
Key people	Tom Thoresen (Director)
Parent	Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs
Website	medietilsynet.no

The Norwegian Media Authority (Norwegian: Medietilsynet) is a Norwegian administrative agency under the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs charged with various tasks relating to broadcasting, newspapers and films.

The Authority's tasks include

• rating movies
• enforcing rules on content, advertising and sponsorship for broadcast media; handling license applications for local broadcast media
• handling applications for newspaper production grants, including non-leading newspapers, minority language newspapers and Sami newspapers
• overseeing and intervening against the acquisition of media ownership (either prohibiting the acquisition or merger, or allowing an acquisition on such conditions as the Authority sets, including ordering the divestment of other media ownership interests.

History

The agency was established 1 January 2005 by merging three government agencies:

• Norwegian Board of Film Classification (Statens filmtilsyn), which was in charge of rating movies.
• Norwegian Media Ownership Authority (Eierskapstilsynet), which oversaw media ownership.
• Mass Media Authority (Statens medieforvaltning, SMF), which had tasks related to broadcasting and newspapers.

The new authority was located in Fredrikstad from 20 March 2006, where the Mass Media Authority already was located, but in a new building.

In 2003, the agency was moved from Oslo to Fredrikstad from 20 March 2006, where the Mass Media Authority had been located. This was a program along wit six other directorates and inspectorates which were move out of Oslo, which had been initialized by Victor Norman, Minister of Government Administration and Reform of the Conservative Party. It cost 729 million Norwegian krone (NOK) to move the seven agencies. An official report from 2009 concluded that the agencies had lost 75 to 90% of their employees, mostly those with long seniority, and that for a while critical functions for society were dysfunctional. No costs reductions had been made, there was no significant impact on the target area, and there was little impact on the communication between the agencies and the ministries. In a 2010 report, Professor Jarle Trondal concluded that none of the agencies had become more independent after the move, despite this being one of the main arguments from the minister. Norman successor, Heidi Grande Røys of the Socialist Left Party, stated that the moving had had an important symbolic effect on the target areas, and that she did not see the lack of advantages as a reason to not move similar agencies later.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ "Svekket av flytting" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5vgc62Ypn. Retrieved 12 January 2011. 
2. ^ "Flytting av tilsyn ut av Oslo ga null effekt" (in Norwegian). Norwegian News Agency. 12 January 2011. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5vgcD6t6S. Retrieved 12 January 2011. 

External links

• Official website
• Film ratings database
• Local television licenses
• Local radio licenses
• The Media Directory—who owns what in Norwegian media