Artist and activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen received Fritt Ord’s Honnør Award on Thursday for her efforts to protect minorities and the rights of indigenous Sami people.

– Artist and activist Isaksen has become a strong symbol of the renewed struggle for indigenous rights in Norway, 40 years after Alta’s actions, Fritt Ord wrote when it was announced in early March that Hætta Isaksen was to receive the honorary title awarded-

Fritt Ords Honnør consists of an amount of NOK 100,000. The prize is awarded by the board of directors of Stiftelsen Fritt Ord for valuable work in the service of freedom of expression, preferably in relation to a topical issue.

– Isaksen has played a central role in uniting culture, activism and work for the protection of minorities and the rights of indigenous peoples in a way that has touched a large number of people, said the president Grete Brochman.

Isaksen herself took the opportunity on Thursday to shine the spotlight on media coverage of the Fosen case, which is close to her heart.

– The Norwegian press should have won a prize for its consistent success in derailing the debate about Fosen, Isaksen said in her speech when she received Honnør from Fritt Ord on Thursday morning.

She herself was a leading figure in protests against the government’s lack of follow-up to the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Fosen wind turbines in Trøndelag.

– In cases involving minorities, it is not appropriate for journalists, regular columnists and editors to simply shoot from the hip. Because those who suffer are the Sami children in the playground, who have to deal with all the turbidity that the media raises, she says.

– It is not a sign of quality that the Norwegian media do not see the difference between legitimate dissent and pure racism.(©NTB)