Norwegian Media Authority

Norwegian Media Authority

Type	Government agency
Founded	January 1, 2005
Headquarters	Fredrikstad, Norway
Area served	Norway
Key people	Tom Thoresen (Director)
Industry	Authority
Parent	Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs
Website	medietilsynet.no

Medietilsynet, or the Norwegian Media Authority, is a Norwegian administrative agency under the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs charged with various tasks relating to broadcasting, newspapers and films.

The Authority's tasks include

rating movies
enforcing rules on content, advertising and sponsorship for broadcast media; handling license applications for local broadcast media
handling applications for newspaper production grants, including non-leading newspapers, minority language newspapers and sami newspapers
overseeing and intervening against the acquisition of media ownership (either prohibiting the acquisition or merger, or allowing an acquisition on such conditions as the Authority sets, including ordering the divestment of other media ownership interests)

[edit] History

The agency was established January 1, 2005 by merging three government agencies:

Statens filmtilsyn (Norwegian Board of Film Classification), which was in charge of rating movies.
Eierskapstilsynet (Norwegian Media Ownership Authority), which oversaw media ownership.
Statens medieforvaltning (SMF) (Mass Media Authority), which had tasks related to broadcasting and newspapers.

The new Medietilsynet was located in Fredrikstad from 20 March 2006, where the Mass Media Authority already was located, but in a new building.