Diplomacy and Aftenposten

If I had the money, I could easily employ myself and 2 others doing nothing but cutting apart what passes for journalism in the Norwegian press generally and particularly in one of its better outlets, Aftenposten.

One recent item tells its readers that the US Dept of State has attempted to influence the Norwegian criminal code, on terrorism. This, we are led to believe, is awful stuff, yet another example of American arrogance.

As the article relates, this was all done in public. The embassy in Oslo made a formal inquiry whether the Norwegian government would object to getting an American view on pending legislation. Aftenposten had access to virtually every relevant document in this matter and says the Americans even went through the trouble of translating Norwegian documents and familairizing themselves with relevant European and international law.

The nerve of those Americans.

Now what the substance of the American comments is, Aftenposten tells us little about. They're looking for harsher sentencing, it appears, and generally a tougher stance on terrorism.

Aftenposten does nothing to point out that: - Terrorism is nothing if not an international problem - Norwegian troops are engaged under the NATO treaty in Afghanistan to prevent Al Qaeda from using the country as a host for terrorist activity - It is not in Norway's interests to unwittingly provide a (relatively) safe haven for terrorist groups - The American initiative was exceedingly polite and scrupulously adherent to protocol, not to mention unusually open. One can only imagine the kind of backchannel communication among various embassies and the foreign ministry in Oslo

The truth is, lambasting the US sells papers and click-throughs. It plays to the low instincts of the paper's readership.

Comments

[John]

Wow, really? Aftenposten *didn't* provide any content to its criticism of the American proposal? Nothing about the notion of criminalizing membership in an organization? Nothing about the inherent difficulties in that?

2 paragraphs from you talking about how *polite* it was done, and another hand-waving about what Aftenposten left out... perhaps next time you could spend a bit more time analyzing the issues that were actually presented, especially if you are going to claim you could write full-time on the inadequacies of the Norwegian press.

[Leif]

The problem is, Aftenposten didn't discuss the content of the American point of view either; they were indignant (and ignorant) about the move altogether. I'm sure there are things I would find agreeable and disagreeable about the suggestions - so what?