Norway: Non-Christian preaching on NRK

Norwegian public broadcaster NRK will abolish the Christian monopoly and Muslims, Buddhists and other religious minorities will be able to use it for preaching.

According to Dagbladet the decision was revealed almost as an aside during Thursday's meeting of the Broadcasting council.

NRK Media manager Annika Bjørnstad said during the meeting that NRK wishes to open up for wider preaching on all their platforms so that it won't just stay Christian preaching. Other faiths will get such an opportunity from the fall, but in any case by 2009.

Rolf Kjøde, general secretary of mission agency Normisjon said the decision was artificial and unnatural to place marginal faiths on the same footing as the largest religious group in a country with a thousand year old Christian tradition. About 83% of the Norwegian population belongs to the Norwegian Lutheran Church, while Islam, the largest non-Christian religion, is barely 2%.

Kristin Mile, general secretary of the Norwegian Humanist Association thinks NRK should keep away from all preaching. People shouldn't preach on radio or TV, certainly not on a big state channel like NRK. Preaching is something faith communities should do to their own members on their own sites. She thinks that if there is preaching on NRK, all religions should be treated equally.

Source: Aftenposten (Norwegian)

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