Status: Free
Legal Environment: 3
Political Influences: 3
Economic Pressures: 4
Total Score: 10

Population: n/a
GNI/capita: n/a
Life Expectancy: 80
Religious Groups: Church of Norway (85.7 percent), Pentecostal (1 percent), Roman Catholic (1 percent), other Christian (2.4 percent), Muslim (1.8 percent), other (8.1 percent)
Ethnic Groups: Norwegian, Sami (20,000)
Capital: Oslo

Freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed. A government ban on political commercials, designed to ensure equal opportunity to the media for all candidates regardless of varying resources, violates the European Convention on Human Rights, which Norway has signed. In April 2005, a Tamil journalist living in Norway received a death threat from an unknown source accusing him of belonging to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan separatist rebel group. A nation of about 4.6 million people, Norway maintains over 200 newspapers that express a wide variety of opinions. At the same time, three large companies dominate the country's print media. The state subsidizes many newspapers, the majority of which are privately owned and openly partisan, in order to promote political pluralism. However, subsidies have been cut in recent years, and there are fears that some special interest publications will be forced to close. The internet is unrestricted and widely used by over 65 percent of the population.

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