The witch-hunt against Document and editor-in-chief Hans Rustad that Filter Nyheter set in motion may not have gone as intended. People are flocking to buy subscriptions from those being vilified, and many editorial offices critical of Document have faced a backlash in their own comment sections. This also applies to those that are or were regarded as conservative, such as Minerva and Aftenposten.
Minerva’s problem with Rustad
‘Rustad’s views are a good corrective to the uniform narrative of the mainstream media,’ Jan Marius writes beneath Minerva’s Facebook post with the headline ‘The problem with Hans Rustad’.
He has received 142 likes so far, almost all of them approving.
‘The problem with Hans Rustad is that he tells the truth. And no one on the left likes that,’ Magne writes.
He has received 173 likes, including 13 laughing reactions.
‘By all means criticise Hans Rustad and Document when they make mistakes – but the condescending “we know best” attitude of the large, state-subsidised media is precisely why more and more people are losing trust in them. Diversity in the media also means that established editorial offices must tolerate competition, criticism and perspectives other than their own. Typical MSM: They preach, the rest of us are just supposed to listen,’ Nils-Petter writes, referring to a TV 2 report on the matter.
Gunnar is among the relatively few in the thread who break the flood of support for Document, writing:
‘The hallelujah crowd in Rustad’s congregation are reacting, I see. As expected, I suppose. The leader’s word is law.’
But the attempt to link Rustad to Nazism was futile. It most certainly did not go down well.
The forest podcasts are the ‘culprit’
One of the first things that happened after Filter Nyheter tore apart editor-in-chief Hans Rustad’s forest podcasts in a new attack on Document (something they have tried before) was that three editors at Morgenbladet resigned from the Norwegian Editors’ Association (Norsk Redaktørforening) in protest. But not the editor-in-chief.
In an article in the trade journal Journalisten, Bjarne Riiser Gundersen, Ingeborg Misje Bergem and Bernhard Ellefsen, respectively culture editor, debate editor and society editor at Morgenbladet, wrote:
As recently as this week, Filter documented how the Document editor personally spreads dangerous conspiracy theories about, among other things, Muslims and Norwegian politicians, and claims that the Norwegian people are being ‘raped’ by traditional media – all without a trace of documentation, simultaneous right of reply or other normal journalistic quality assurance, the three wrote as part of their justification for resigning.
Much support for Document in the comment sections
The post prompted enormous engagement on Facebook, but only to a minimal extent in support of those protesting against Document.
‘The country where journalists have to agree completely in order to be members of the team! The country without controversies, without dissenting voices and without opposition! Amazing! You could almost think it was North Korea!’ Claudia writes, receiving 77 likes and a handful of laughing reactions.
‘Yes, goodness – imagine having a member who does not follow the left-radical fashion in opinions,’ Erlend writes, receiving almost as many likes and a couple of laughing reactions.
Jan Roger is among the very few who think the protest resignations at Morgenbladet are a good thing, and hopes that Document will be thrown out and also lose its press subsidies. He is met with a robust response, including from John, who writes:
‘Yes, abolish all press subsidies, including the broadcasting fee paid through taxation.’
Morgenbladet and Klassekampen awash in press subsidies
Document has received a total of NOK 8.4 million in press subsidies since it first received such support in 2023. By comparison, Morgenbladet received NOK 31.4 million for 2025 alone, while Klassekampen receives the most of all, NOK 45 million a year. The newspaper that not long ago advocated revolution in Norway has received approximately NOK 170 million in press subsidies in the past four years alone.
Support from Dagen and Klassekampen
The witch-hunt against Document and editor Rustad is not unanimous among the editor-controlled media. Vebjørn Selbekk of the Christian newspaper Dagen and editor Mari Skurdal of Klassekampen warn against expelling Rustad from the Norwegian Editors’ Association, in what would, if it happened, be the association’s very first expulsion case in its history. Both write editorials arguing that the association must have room for differing opinions. Something one might perhaps have thought was self-evident?
Closed the comment sections
In an editorial, Aftenposten joins the editors who want the Document editor’s head on a platter. The formerly staunchly conservative newspaper has shared a couple of articles about the dispute over Document on Facebook, but has closed the comment sections, as other media outlets have also done in this case. This also applies to the article by Document editor Rustad that it published. There, comments were closed from the outset, while the first article it shared on Facebook originally had a comment section. It evidently did not turn out as desired, because the comments were not merely closed; they were deleted. We managed to photograph some of them:
The comments section on Aftenposten’s article about the Document dispute was first closed on Facebook. Then all the comments were deleted. (AI-translated from the Norwegian)
Is Rustad salivating over a martyr’s halo?
‘The Editors’ Association will not make Rustad historic with its first expulsion in 26 years. Nor give him the martyr’s halo he is salivating over,’ Nina Johnsrud writes in a comment section on Svein Tore Bergestuen’s page. He is an advertising executive, a former Labour Party man, a former colleague of Umar Ashraf, head of the Norwegian Centre against Racism (Antirasistisk Senter), and highly active in the campaigns against Document. She is a veteran journalist and crime reporter at Dagsavisen whose house was fired upon after reporting on the ‘wrong’ milieu. Among other things, the Islamist Ubaydullah Hussain had to serve 60 days because of threats against her, while the prosecution got nowhere with the shooting charge against Arfan Bhatti. Johnsrud now appears to want to exclude the editorial office that perhaps more than any other seeks to shed light on the problems to which she herself was subjected.
‘Power to the people’ was the cry from the left some years ago, when they began their march through the institutions. Now ‘the people’, that is, ordinary people, are responding in kind to the result. ‘Power to the people’ has been observed in the comment sections in the dispute over Document. That is, in defence of freedom of expression, the voices of the people and the media organisation that goes its own way.
And as it says in the comment section beneath Document’s news about the influx of new subscribers:
‘Wonderful! Document gives hope, which gives us an inner driving force. Many thanks to everyone! And an extra pat on the back for Hans Rustad!’
