CONTROVERSY ON THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 408, 18 April 1947, Page 12

CONTROVERSY ON THE AIR

Norway Has an Open Forum

an informed public is the only safeguard of democracy and that is why the Norwegian Broadcasting Service. has controversial broadcasts. Some topics occasionally create a storm, but . that, according to Arne Okkenhaug, is better by far than mental idleness. Arne Okkenhaug, who is director of school broadcasts for Norway, left Oslo in May of last year to study the broadcasting systems of other countries. He has been in Canada and the United States and is now in New. Zealand seeing what he can learn from us. Interviewed by The Listener, he said he believed all broadcasters, because of the heavy responsibility they have of believe that

controlling something that goes into the very homes of the people, should learn all they can of the world they live in; that is another reason for his extended tour. And he is especially interested in New Zealand because, in many ways, it is so similar to his homeland. A Cross-Section View "We discuss all sorts of things,’ he said. "We ask ourselves, for instance, if we should lean on Russia, or incline towatds the United States, or rely on ourselves alone. Our policy as a small nation in relation to the big powers is something that concerns us vitally. We discuss whether we should teach more religion in the schools, or whether the influerice of the Church should be lessened. It’s an open forum. All these (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) things are discussed in the studios between representatives of groups with different viewpoints, and so we arrive at the opinion of a cross-section of the people." "Who chooses the subjecis?" "Every week the heads of the programme departments confer and decide on the subjects for some weeks ahead. They represent all shades of opinion, so there is always plenty of material. We hope to go further and introduce controversial broadcasting into the school sessions.’ Education for Adults Adult education had been conducted by the Norwegian broadcasting system since 1933, Mr. Okkenhaug told us. People formed themselves into listening groups and the service put out pamphlets dealing with all sorts of subjects. Libraries also helped by looking up books on topics to be dealt with and making them readily available to readers. "The radio does its best to elucidate problems presented by the general public, and we discuss social, political, economic and industrial matters. We have even dealt with free enterprise versus State control. Radio cannot offer the solution to all these problems, but it can start people thinkihg and talking." We asked Mr. Okkenhaug where he learned to speak his excellent English, "I started 16 years ago," he said. "English is now the second language taught in all the secondary schools and it is used pretty widely in Norway. We teach it mainly because there is so much

literature about vital subjects published in English, and we depend on it for general information. And it is necessary for a small people such as we are to find a common medium of language. When our young people matriculate, they must pass examinations in English. We have 50,000 pupils studying English by radio-a colossal increase since the war. They have two lessons a week and go through a two years’ course of study provided for us by the BBC." Besides studying radio operation in other countries, Mr. Okkenhaug is gathering impressions of world education systems and various industries. He believes that much of what he learns can be of help to him when he returns to Norway. "Broadcasting is still a young industry and as yet we don’t fully realise what a power it is in the lives of nations," he said. "And it is extremely interesting to see how other people use that power. At home we have about 25 stations in one network. There is no commercial division as you have here, but our technical problems are peculiar because of our high mountains and deep fiords and valleys." : It’s Not a Small World Before the war the Norwegian radio did a certain amount of commercial work with spot announcements, but they were dropped because of the ease with which they could be used for espionage, and they had not been resumed. "When the Germans arrived they went in for some heavy propaganda work, so many of \the staff left, and broadcasting was carried on in close co-operation between Norway and the BBC. The Nazis imposed the death penalty on people caught listening to BBC programmes, and many lost their lives." We asked Mr. Okkenhaug what he had learned so far on his tour. He said that in spite of the saying, "It’s a small world," it was actually a very vast place. True, one could travel from New Zealand to the United States'in less than a week, but that was the privilege of the few. To the ordinary man distances were still huge, but travel was a sure way of broadening one’s outlook and getting nearer a one-world concept. But he was sorry to see that even in the United Nations Assembly, speakers viewed things purely from their own national standpoint, which was not helping to bring about world co-operation. Broadcasts to Schools "How do your school . broadcasts work?" "Very much on the same lines as in New Zealand. Like you, we do not believe they should be com ulsory, so the broadcasts can be included in the lessons or not, at the discretion of the teachers. It is because radio is such a powerful propaganda instrument that the teachers have the option." "How many schools have radio sets?" "Before the war about 40 per cent. of them; but the Germans took them away. Now they are coming back into use again." Norway, too, has its broadcasting journal, which goes under the name of Hallo, Hallo, This unusual title was chosen because the announcers’ customary introduction to an announcement or a broadcast session was "Hallo, this is Oslo." Before leaving for a month in Australia on his way home, Mr. Okkenhaug will visit Rotorua to see something of Maori life, and Feilding, where he is anxious to see the community centre at work,