When Norway was almost at war : the Mohammed cartoons controversy in Norwegian newspapers

Ultimo January and primo February 2006 Norway (and Denmark) experienced burning of their national flags in Palestine, burning of embassies and consulates in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Norway s ISAF-forces in Afghanistan were attacked. This thesis will focus on how some leading Norwegian newspapers, Aften, Aftenposten, Dagbladet, Dagens Næringsliv, Dagsavisen and VG handled and covered an unexpected controversy, the Mohammed cartoons crisis. The conflict with origin in Denmark had surprising impact on Norwegian domestic and foreign policy, on the domestic discourses of Freedom of speech, on media discourse and on Norway as a heterogeneous society. The events in Norway are of particular importance, since the reprinting of the Muhammed cartoons here 10th January 2006 triggered a global escalation of the cartoons conflict. The media discourse was influenced by Samuel Huntington s clash of civilizations -theories, directly or indirectly, us versus them - the Muslims in general, as minority in Norway and raging men in the Middle East - worthy an unworthy victim-hood, as well as the media s distinction between the internal and external other , creating heroes, demons and villains. Freedom of speech became a substantial part of the media discourses, in the shape of fundamentalism as well as tolerance, and the reconciliation meeting, the peace solution 10th February, was characterised by both these approaches and attitudes. The analysis of the newspaper coverage that I present, has the overall perspective of War- versus Peace- or nuanced journalism, showing how the media contributed to escalate the conflict domestically and abroad, but also the media s attempts to encourage dialogue and reconciliation; disclosing some surprising aspects of how conflicts like these are handled in the Norwegian newsrooms.