Sigbjørn Gjelsvik (Sp) has received strong criticism for not publishing the FFI report ordered by his own ministry. His own party leader, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, says such reports should be public.
nations wrote on Friday that municipal minister Sigbjørn Gjelsvik (Sp) will not publish a report commissioned by the same ministry.
He believed the findings could fuel conspiracy theories and link EEA opposition to extreme political views.
– If researchers want to present such arguments for the EU and the EEA, they can join an organization or political party, instead of encapsulating it in an electoral influence research report, which is likely to contribute to greater polarization of the Norwegian debate, Gjelsvik told the Nation.
Ine Eriksen Søreide of Høyre was adamant on logic and prayed on Monday Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) takes the field.
– It has to be published
SP leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum tells VG that the important thing is that the report is now public and points out that FFI has posted the report on its website.
– Sigbjørn Gjelsvik will not publish the FFI report on the ministry website. Do you support him in this?
– The report must in any case be published. It happened now. It is part of our vocabulary for things to be published and then discussed. Exactly where it will be published I have not deepened and discussed. Debate is never harmful, Vedum tells VG.
– But why is it not published on the government website, if it is not harmful to the debate?
– You have to ask Gjelsvik exactly that evaluation, he says.
Vedum says there are many reports and text documents coming to a ministry that are not posted on the website.
– This is nothing new at all. The important thing is that there is transparency on which documents the ministry receives, if it is not exempt from public access of course. Everything else must be transparent, Vedum says.
– I think it is good that we can discuss a research report. This in itself is awareness. It belongs to an enlightened society to discuss. So it has to come out openly as long as there are no security policy reasons why there should be no transparency about it, he says.
– Søreide said this undermines trust in research. Do you agree with her?
– It is the way of an opposition politician to make a political point. The answer is no, Vedum says and points out:
– There is no doubt that this type of reporting should be public, as long as there are no political security reasons to act otherwise. Some FFI reports are not public. Having a change of words on this is good. I haven’t read the report, so I have no judgment on the content of the report, she says.
– Mix fiction and reality
On Monday morning, Gjelsvik defended the decision not to publish the FFI report on the ministry’s website, and points out that they gave access to journalists and others who requested it.
– The ministry has always been clear that FFI can publish the report on its website. He also communicated this in writing to FFI on September 29, he writes in an e-mail to VG.
– I believe that the report, among other things, mixes fiction and reality in an unfortunate way that can derail the debate. I was afraid that some people might be led to believe that there were real vulnerabilities in the conduct of the elections in Norway. That’s why we chose not to publish the report on regjeringen.no, she writes.
VG asked Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (AP) for a comment, but received no response on Monday afternoon.
