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– Now I have covered four options as a journalist and I want to have a new entry. “So now I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we have four new years with Erna,” Cato Husabø Fossen tells DN.
Fossen, who is still employed by NRK, has worked as a political reporter for the channel since 2016. Last Friday, he received, somewhat unexpectedly, a job offer from Norway’s second-largest party.
– It really was a big surprise for me, at the end of a conversation about something else. Now I have not taken any initiative towards the conservatives. I’ve been a journalist for almost a decade, and the idea of doing something else has grown in me over time, and when I was contacted now and offered this job, I had to consider if it was time to change industries and I got to what it was.
Husabø Fossen has experience as a journalist for Firda, VG and TV 2, as well as NRK, where he has worked mainly as a political reporter, but also occasionally as a presenter on Dagsrevyen. Now he assumes the position of press director in the Conservative Party, a position that is currently not filled.
He has been a member of the municipal council of the Conservative Party
However, this is not the first commitment Fossen has made to the Conservatives. In 2011, before landing her first job as a journalist at the local newspaper Firda, she served on the council of the Conservatives in the city of Førde, after being a member of the Young Conservatives.
– Has your loyalty been with the party the whole time?
– No. I have always been one hundred percent dedicated and loyal to my work at NRK. And although I joined the Conservative Party as a teenager and will now start working for the Conservative Party, I have done everything I can to be objective, fair and critical of everyone. We invite you to go through all my journalism, I am very sure that I have had as much inclination to the right as to the left.
He stresses that he wants to be open about the transition from journalism to politics.
– I’ll line up and answer questions for anyone wondering about something. It goes without saying that if you are going to work with communication in a political party, then you should be able to communicate about it.
Exempt from labor duties
The exact date Fossen will start a new job has not been finalized, but it won’t be a matter of long.
– During October once. He’s not completely grounded with NRK, but I immediately stopped doing journalistic work for NRK.
Fossen has not done journalistic work for NRK since receiving the job offer and is currently exempt from his job duties.
– It would be very strange to go to morning meetings in the political department of NRK. Now I will only agree with NRK on when the employment relationship will end. It will probably happen very soon.
I think the whole group will benefit from it.
Conservative parliamentary leader Trond Helleland says the party is satisfied with the appointment.
– We are very pleased to have one of Norway’s most prominent political journalists join the team as our new press director. Less than a year to go until elections where the goal is a historic reelection for the conservatives in government and Erna as prime minister, she says, adding:
– Cato has extensive experience in journalism, a deep understanding of Norwegian politics and great analytical skills, I am sure the whole party will benefit. Also, he is a nice and sympathetic guy who I am convinced will fit well into the happiest communication band in the Storting.
Fossen is not the first to make the move from journalism to politics. In 2018, it became clear that Dagsrevyen’s host Jarle Roheim Håkonsen had been hired as a communications manager in the Labor Party. Husabø Fossen once had Rune Alstadsæter, who is now Erna Solberg’s press secretary of state, as his first NRK boss. Earlier this year, it became clear that TV 2 political reporter Kjetil Løset became head of communications for the Progress Party.
Editor-in-chief Marianne Johansen of NRK’s finance and policy department says it’s a shame to lose Fossen.
– Cato has been a very skilled political reporter who has brought many qualities to setting the NRK agenda, and we would like to keep him on the editorial team and will miss him as an employee and the journalistic ability he has had.
He does not believe that Fossen’s past or future ties to a political party have had an impact on journalism.
– I have the experience that Cato has had a balanced approach to all aspects of Norwegian politics. Having a background in politics is not unusual for political journalists. It’s a bit more unusual for journalists to go into politics, but it happens. Since NRK, there have been examples of journalists who have gone to both sides of politics.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
