Late in the evening on 3 March, King Harald landed safely on Norwegian soil after he was brought in by ambulance from Malaysia. During a private holiday, the king had been hospitalized with an infection.
The hospital stay and the journey home to Norway were thoroughly covered by the Norwegian national media, including Dagbladet.
Norwegians could follow the king’s journey home minute by minute in the Norwegian media, and the plane that carried the king was the most followed on the monitoring service Flightradar24, with almost 100,000 followers.
Now NRK must answer for its coverage of the king’s hospital transport.
The cortege is ready
Questions about spending money
During the “Saturday Review” on March 2, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre is questioned about the king’s return home.
Støre gets several critical questions. He is challenged that “the 87-year-old king with a long medical history is traveling to Malaysia on holiday”.
NRK wonders if “questions can be raised about the public spending” related to the return journey.
Such journalistic questions were later criticized for going too far.
QUESTION: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was asked several critical questions by NRK on Saturday 2 March. Photo: Screen dump/NRK/ Dagsrevyen Show more
– Rabbled completely for NRK?
And it is precisely the critical questions about the king’s journey home that several people react to.
NRK has since received several complaints which will be processed by the Broadcasting Council on Thursday.
Reacts: – Distasteful
“Has it gone completely wrong for the news department at NRK?”, writes one person.
“Here we sit on our nerves because our dear King Harald has fallen ill abroad and may not survive the return journey to Norway, and this is what NRK thinks is right to ask questions about. Are they not aware that King Harald is king in Norway?”, it says further.
Look and be heard royal family member Caroline Vagle believes the criticism directed at King Harald is petty. Reporter: Marte Nyløkken Helseth / Dagbladet TV. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet Show more
Another describes it as “shocking” to watch NRK’s news broadcast on Saturday 2 March.
The person believes that it is both “embarrassing”, “totally disrespectful” and “bad journalism” that questions were asked about whether the return journey would cost the people’s wallets.
Norwegians support King Harald
– Disrespectful questions
A complainant also writes that she is responding to the questions that were put to Støre.
“It is with great relish that I sit and feel NRK’s journalist’s condescending and disrespectful questions that were put to Prime Minister Støre. It goes without saying that His Majesty the King is going home and that at our expense”.
Others also react to the fact that “Kveldsnytt” on 3 March was only about the king’s sick transport, and little other news.
“I expected to be updated on the news picture, instead I was served a half-hour “reportage” about the king’s sick transport and arrival in Norway, with endless statements from Harald Stanghelle and she the celebrity journalist who always seems like she thinks she is a serious journalist. It felt like the longest half hour of my life.”