When a foreign state attacks freedom of expression on Norwegian soil, the government must protest

Saudi Arabia shouldn’t be able to harass artists visiting Norway.

Dagbladet news It is striking that representatives of Saudi Arabia have tried to threaten an artist visiting Bergen with silence.

Saudi Arabia is a closed and totalitarian regime, which makes no effort to kill its critics abroad.

That the state exhibits threatening behavior towards its own citizens also in this country is shocking.

Teresa Grøtan is the leader of the Bergen International Literature Festival. It states that the artist was part of the festival’s program in 2019.

She says the artist was approached at her hotel and threatened by representatives of the Saudi embassy in Oslo. They showed up and didn’t try to hide who they were.

According to the festival director, they threatened the woman, did not ask her to get up for nothing and go home to Saudi Arabia.

This probably happened five months after regime critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Five Saudi agents were sentenced to death in their home country last year. US intelligence has established that the assassination order came from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.

In this context, it is obvious that the Bergen case must be taken seriously.

The episode should it also led the Norwegian authorities and companies to reconsider their relationship with the Riyadh authorities.

Among other things, Norwegian manufacturers sell surveillance equipment and other military equipment to the country. The Petroleum Fund has also invested in Saudi Arabia, but has sold parts of its portfolio this year.

It can be characterized As hypocritical for the government to criticize a Norwegian regime, state-owned companies make money.

It is even more important that politicians are clear in their condemnation of human rights violations.

Can be good reasons why the threat case has been hidden from the public for almost two years. Not least the consideration for the safety of the artist.

Ideally, such obvious abuse by a foreign power on Norwegian soil should have been raised to the highest political level immediately.

In any event, the totalitarian regime’s attempt to stifle one of the country’s leading opposition voices is completely unacceptable.

It’s not too late react. Now that the case is publicly known, it is even more important for the government to protest.

Culture Minister Abid Raja (V) is pleased to lead the protest. It should emphasize that the freedom of expression of artists is a universal and inviolable human right. It should be the same in Saudi Arabia.