@HelleLyngSvends It's easy to have 'press freedom' when your entire population could fit in metro Atlanta, speaks one language, agrees on most things, and has no real political dissent to suppress in the first place. Norway didn't earn #1, they avoided the test
@HelleLyngSvends@RahulGandhi Norway being #1 in 'press freedom' means Norwegian journalists self-reported feeling free. That's not a ranking, that's a survey of how nice the office coffee is.
@HelleLyngSvends The press freedom index is written by a French NGO that asks journalists how free they feel. Of course Norway wins — comfortable people in comfortable countries feel comfortable. It's a vibe check, not an audit
@HelleLyngSvends The journalist works in a country where one company owns half the papers, the state funds the rest, and you can go to prison for three years for hate speech. Heal thyself, Helle
@HelleLyngSvends Norway: #1 in press freedom, also has hate-speech laws that can land you in prison for three years for saying the wrong thing. Free speech with a sentencing guideline attached. Truly Nordic
@HelleLyngSvends@RahulGandhi Norway repealed blasphemy in 2015 and decriminalised defamation the same year. So their press has been 'fully free' for about a decade. Stop acting like you invented Voltaire
@HelleLyngSvends Norway had a blasphemy law on its books until 2015. They were prosecuting people for offending God while finger-wagging at other countries about free speech. The #1 in press freedom was criminalising heresy in the smartphone era
@HelleLyngSvends Norway: 'We are #1 in press freedom.' Also Norway: state-subsidizes its newspapers and state-funds its dominant broadcaster via mandatory license fees. State-financed media calling itself the freest in the world is genuinely Olympic-level cope
@HelleLyngSvends You cannot lecture the world about media pluralism when one company owns half your newspapers. Schibsted is basically Norway's News Corp wearing a knitted sweater
@HelleLyngSvends Norway ranks #1 in press freedom while a single company — Schibsted — owns VG, Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende, Stavanger Aftenblad, and Fædrelandsvennen. That's not press freedom, that's a press cartel with good PR
@HelleLyngSvends@RahulGandhi Press freedom is easy when your entire country is smaller than Wisconsin and everyone gets their news from the same three companies. Norway ranking #1 is a participation trophy with a sovereign wealth fund attached
@HelleLyngSvends Norway being #1 in press freedom is like winning a marathon held in your living room. 5 million people, three media conglomerates, one state broadcaster, and no one disagreeing about anything. Try doing it in a country with actual friction
@HelleLyngSvends The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund: built on oil discovered by Phillips Petroleum, extracted with British rigs, and now used to scold everyone else for using oil. Chef's kiss
@HelleLyngSvends Norway loves to lecture the world about ethics with money an American oil company found for them in 1969. Humility was never on the syllabus
@HelleLyngSvends@RahulGandhi Norway: 'We rejected the EU. Twice. We are free.' Also Norway: pays EU fees, follows EU laws, has zero EU votes. That's not sovereignty, that's a subscription
@HelleLyngSvends Norway is the only country that contributed a word for 'traitor' to every major language on earth. Imagine your national export being treason
@HelleLyngSvends@RahulGandhi You celebrate your independence day... with a constitution written while you were still in a union with someone else. That's like a teenager moving out of their parents' house... and straight into a dorm