It’s a shame to have to say it, but the power elite, with its court of powerful media outlets in 2026, has no place for *Document* in its midst. The media landscape is too sparse, stunted and complacent for that, and the ugly duckling is far too visible. At the same time: anyone who cares to look can see that the emperor is naked, completely without clothes.
With universal, timeless images captured by H.C. Andersen, anyone who does not close their eyes and ears can see the bizarre spectacle with Document in the role of the «enfant terrible» and the Norwegian Editors’ Association as the censor – with the exclusive right to censor free speech, as the very gatekeeper against ‘free expression’. And one wonders: Why on earth is it so important to cast Hans Rustad out of ‘respectable society’ right now, and to muzzle the newspaper and website Document?
Stable lateral position
With its rapid growth and rapidly expanding reach from south to north, Document has, in a relatively short space of time, become a threat to a complacent Norwegian mainstream press and the media as a whole. For a long time, they have found themselves in a sort of imagined nirvana, lying, so to speak, in a permanently stable lateral position.
As long as the newspaper and website Document were a media minnow, read only by outsiders, dissidents and those with a special interest, the long arm of power paid them little attention. Nobody there read Document. They hardly do so even today, as is quite clearly evident from the letter – which, from a purely factual point of view, is dubious – from the Norwegian Editors’ Association to editor Hans Rustad, containing not a single example of WHAT the newspaper and Rustad have actually done wrong.
The court jesters
That said: the ‘warning’ from the NR is a kind of ritual act that, in a sense, was bound to happen. Not primarily because of *Document*’s content – which is neatly distinguished between what constitutes news and what are personal, subjective comments – but quite simply from a brutal power perspective.
Because the extended arm of power senses that it is being hounded from behind – they can hear a rustle right behind them from a ‘dangerous’ competitor, and that is not pleasant. Mind you, a competitor in terms of content and so-called truth. A competitor who, to an ever-increasing proportion of Norwegians, demonstrates on a daily basis that the Emperor has no clothes, and that systematic deception, lies and spiritual debauchery are being perpetrated in the innermost corridors of power and amongst their court jesters in the press and media.
So someone has to be targeted, and Hans Rustad and Document are, of course, fair game. This should be common knowledge to anyone who has lived in this country for a little longer than ‘a quarter of an hour’.
A failed witch-hunt
In my view, the Norwegian Editors’ Association has manoeuvred itself into a corner from which it will be difficult to emerge with its reputation intact.
If Editor Rustad is sacked, it will clearly demonstrate that there is a serious lack of tolerance and that the organisation is not worthy of a functioning democracy.
If Rustad gets off with a so-called warning, then they will have cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ yet again without justification and wasted a great deal of time and effort on a non-issue, a complete and utter failed witch hunt.
Dangerous competitor
I read Hans Rustad’s response to the questions he received from the Editors’ Association, on behalf of Document. If this is the formal reply HR has sent to NR, I fear his membership may be revoked. Do not misunderstand; the answers are brilliant, firmly grounded in freedom of expression as the very cornerstone of a vibrant democracy. And above all, the answers are “true”, as far as I can judge. In any case, they seek the truth, in contrast to the all-powerful association, judging by the content of the threatening letter. And that is precisely why they will feel ‘exposed’ and trampled upon, and their antipathy towards everything Document stands for – including freedom of speech – will be confirmed, something one cannot, of course, admit to.
So, by banishing *Document* and sparing people from such brazen journalism directed at those in power (called ‘activism’ by the Editors’ Association), they will almost certainly claim that they are defending, preserving and even strengthening freedom of speech itself. We await developments with bated breath, but I think I know what the Norwegian Editors’ Association’s response will be and what fate awaits Document. In short, the media organisation Document has become too big and too dangerous, and is read and visited by far too many Norwegians, for it to be allowed to ‘roam freely’ in our small, fragmented media landscape. This clique, which for all practical purposes acts as the extended arm of power, cannot tolerate a truth-seeking, cheeky Document at the heart of its power-hungry circle.
