“I have not studied India. India is not a field I cover either. But I’ve read a lot about it in the newspapers,” Helle Lyng said.
Having shot into the spotlight for asking why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not take questions at a press briefing and then about why India should be trusted, Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng appeared to have difficulties when faced with some questions herself on Wednesday.
NDTV’s Gaurie Dwivedi posed a series of queries to the young journalist in an exclusive conversation, ranging from press freedom in Norway to how much she knew about India. Lyng was also pressed on the cartoon depicting PM Modi as a snake charmer, but refused to condemn it.
Asked about her post on X stating that she wasn’t expecting PM Modi to answer her question and whether her motive was actually theatrics, Lyng, who is a commentator for the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen, said she was doing her job.
“My job as a reporter or a journalist, and now a commentator, is to question the premise of these foreign visits or state visits to Norway. So, for me, it was very important to try to get a question in and give Prime Minister Modi the opportunity to take questions,” she said.
When Lyng was asked whether she was aware that PM Modi was giving a joint statement alongside his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store and why she had not raised the issue earlier with the foreign ministry in Norway if she had a problem with the format, she admitted that she had not.
The journalist argued that because she did not know when she would get access to PM Modi again, she decided to ask a question as they were in the same room.
Emphasising that she was shocked by the amount of attention her questions were receiving in India, Lyng noted that Leader of the Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had also commented on her post.
“I have asked Gandhi for an interview and, if I get a chance, I will also ask him some of the concerns I have about press freedom in India, how he would change that, and if he would prioritise it,” she said.
Ranking Disparity
Lyng had been touting the fact that Norway was ranked number 1 in the press freedom rankings. When she was asked whether she was aware that Qatar, an illiberal monarchy, and Jordan were ahead of India in the index, the journalist said she was open to looking into whether some countries were higher than they should be.
Lyng was then questioned about the Norwegian royal couple going to China in 2018, when they had feigned ignorance about the Uighur internment camps. Her response was that she was not a journalist at the time.
“I’ve never covered Xi Jinping. If he comes to Norway, I will also try to question him. Make no mistake, I’m very critical of the human rights situation in China,” she said.
PM Modi Cartoon
Asked about the stereotyping of Indians in a cartoon by the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten and whether this is what press freedom was about for her, Lyng said she hadn’t read the accompanying article.
Pressed on whether she did not think this was racism or stereotyping, the journalist did not give a clear answer.
“Racism and stereotyping, especially racism, is not press freedom. I have just seen this, I haven’t noticed how far of a reach this had, but I’m sure it has had a far reach because you are bringing this up. But that’s something that the newspaper that published this would have to really evaluate. But for me, I can’t comment on it before I know because I don’t want to comment on something I’m not educated about yet. So that’s just how I feel about it,” she said.
“But I will say that I deeply feel that anyone feeling like a newspaper in Norway is being racist or having a cartoon that’s stereotyping Indians, that’s something that we have to discuss and see whether it was satire or political satire… We would have to evaluate whether they did not understand that this was hurtful,” she added.
It was also pointed out to Lyng that Dagsavisen, the newspaper she works for, was a mouthpiece of the Norwegian Labour Party until the 1990s.
“I think it’s kind of offensive that you call it a mouthpiece… Some of the greatest thinkers of Norway have worked for this publication, and they were able to do a lot… Things were different back then,” she said.
India Knowledge
To a question on how much she knew about India and whether she had read any books on Indian democracy, Lyng began talking about Indian food and yoga.
“I think my impression of India is that it’s a great country. And the people of India have been so supportive… I love Indian food and I love yoga as well, which was a part of the press conference on Monday. And so I have a very good impression of India as a country and the Indian people, but I do question press freedom and human rights violations. And that’s also a part of it,” she said.
To a follow-up question on whether she had actually been to India, Lyng explained she was going to do so in 2020, but could not because of the pandemic.
