Good TVIt is maybe no shock that the decor at TV BRA’s new studio is shockingly pink.
It is the favourite colour of two of the station’s reporters, Emily Ann Riedel and Petter Bjørkmo, who was carrying a pink high once I visited. “I even have pink hair!” Bjorkmo advised me with amusing, earlier than including that he needed to do away with it, “as a result of I’m a reporter—and reporters should look presentable.”
All reporters at TV BRA (which means “TV Good”) are disabled or autistic; most have studying disabilities.
They produce a weekly hour-long journal present overlaying information, leisure and sport, which airs on Norway’s primary streaming platform TV2 play in addition to TV BRA’s personal app and web site.
“I’ve inside magnificence and outer magnificence”
This system is offered in easy Norwegian and is slower than mainstream information protection, making it simpler to grasp. Between 4,000 and 5,000 folks watch every week.
The station’s 10 reporters are unfold throughout the nation serving as native information reporters.
Riedel has Down syndrome and lives and works within the seaside metropolis of Stavanger. She should be taught to regulate her enthusiastic persona.
“I’ve to observe a script and never speak about private issues – as a result of that is about information. After I work right here, I’ve to be very skilled.
Despite the fact that she’s been working on the station for years, some issues are nonetheless new, just like the mascara she places on earlier than happening digicam, which she says makes her eyelids heavy.
“I do not want it as a result of I look fairly,” Riddle advised me with a smile. “I’ve inside magnificence and outer magnificence.”
“Yeah, that is proper,” laughed Camilla Kvalheim, the station’s editor-in-chief and now a make-up artist. “However within the studio, the lighting is so heavy that every little thing seems pale.”
Kvalheim and a small and wholesome workforce of technical employees produce and edit all experiences.
Despite the fact that Riddell and her colleagues have gentle studying disabilities – they largely communicate English very effectively and journey with out assist – some issues are a problem.
I watched the workforce attempt to grasp the brand new auto-cue system. Audio system typically have to learn strains a number of instances for good impact.
“Generally it is exhausting to inform what’s within the cue playing cards, so we have now to do it many times,” Kvalheim mentioned. She additionally had to supply on-the-job coaching to her workforce, who didn’t research journalism in school earlier than becoming a member of the station.
Nonetheless, her expectations for the workforce are excessive.
“She mentioned, ‘Are you able to do that once more? Are you able to repeat what you mentioned? Are you able to look instantly into the digicam?
“When she’s proud, once we’re completed, she’ll say, ‘I beloved this half! I beloved this half! That is what I need to see! Use your power and be one of the best you could be!”
Already pointed out Individuals with studying disabilities could also be held again by excessively optimistic suggestions, stopping them from creating their abilities. That is not the problem right here.
“If we will be seen by an viewers, we have now to look skilled,” Kvalheim mentioned unapologetically. “In the event that they need to be revered as reporters and reporters, they should observe the moral requirements of different information organizations.”
The origins of TV BRA started over ten years in the past when she was working as a trainer for folks with studying disabilities in a nursing dwelling in Bergen and determined to pursue her ardour for filmmaking. She discovered that when she took out her digicam, her relationships along with her colleagues modified.
“Instantly, once we had been making these motion pictures collectively, we turned a crew, we turned a workforce. It wasn’t that I used to be above them—we had been equals,” Kvalheim recalled.
Discovering that her artistic collaborators had loads to say in regards to the world, she was inspired to proceed the work, and it steadily gained momentum.
Now it is a nationwide community with a correct studio — however Kovalheim admits her reporters aren’t paid the identical as their counterparts at different networks.
The station receives state funding and generates revenue from offering weekly programming to TV2, however funding is extraordinarily tight.
Effectively completed, the workforce is motivated by one thing aside from cash. In Norway, as in each nation, folks with studying disabilities face issues resembling low employment charges, entry to assist and housing. Having the ability to perceive the information permits the broader group to marketing campaign on these points.
“Discuss rights”
Petter Bjørkmo’s current report is an efficient instance. He visited a girl with a extra extreme studying incapacity who was residing in a shelter in Trondheim. “The town — the federal government — desires to remove her purchasing,” he advised me, which implies her price range shall be accompanied to the shop by a assist employee.
“They advised her she had to go surfing. However she will’t! It is exhausting for her to go surfing to purchase groceries as a result of she will’t communicate very effectively. She wants assist!
Kvalheim mentioned Bjorkmo’s report acquired a “robust response” from viewers, though it didn’t lead native authorities to rethink their stance.
“The TV BRA is essential,” agreed Svein Andre Hofsø, one other journalist. “As a result of we’re speaking about folks with disabilities and what our rights are in actual life.”
Hofso is an Oslo-based Motion Information reporter who was already a family title earlier than becoming a member of TV BRA.
In 2013, he performed the main function within the film “Detective Downs”. Forward of the final parliamentary elections in 2021, Andrei had the chance to as soon as once more placed on the detective’s fedora, however this time his job was to grill numerous politicians on their insurance policies in his tongue-in-cheek manner.
One shot exhibits him sitting on a bench exterior Oslo’s parliament constructing, pretending to learn a newspaper. Politician Jonas Gahr Støre – the chief of the Labor Get together – is wandering exterior, however behind a pillar a stooge is ready to ambush him. As Hofthor watched, the Golem threw a butterfly internet on the unsuspecting Stoll.
Within the subsequent scene, we see Støre sitting on a chair within the basement. Hofso shone an angled mild in his face and confirmed him images of disabled folks trying unhappy and lonely. “What’s going to you do for us if we vote for you?”
Presently, Stoll established his incapacity coverage. After the election, he did turn out to be prime minister.
Camilla Kvalheim laughed as she recalled the encounter. “It was very humorous. Each time we noticed him from then on, he would say, ‘Oh – are you going to catch me in a butterfly internet?
On the day I visited BRA TV, they had been visited by native right-wing Progress Get together MP Silje Hjemdal.
A workforce of 4 journalists requested her about every little thing from roads to immigration, in addition to her ideas on plans for Oslo’s lavish new Nationwide Theater (being from Bergen, she was considerably skeptical of the venture). Kvalheim was additionally current to information the questions.
Heimdall’s reply was critical, however the encounter was additionally crammed with heat; she is a long-time supporter of the community.
“Making TV in a brand new manner”
TV BRA just isn’t the one TV information station to be hosted by folks with studying disabilities. Iceland and Denmark have related applications, albeit on a smaller scale. In the meantime, Slovenia, the Netherlands and a number of other different nations supply “easy information” companies – simplified reporting, however not supplied by folks with studying disabilities.
For viewers of BRA TV, such companies are indispensable. “I feel this station is essential to our group,” mentioned Anne-Britt Ekerhovd, a fan who has a studying incapacity. “They clarify issues very effectively. In numerous information like NRK, their explanations are too tough for us to grasp. TV BRA is less complicated to grasp.
Espen Giertsen, one other fan of the community, agreed: “There’s one thing particular about this – they’re making tv in a brand new manner.”
BRA TV journalists are effectively conscious of the essential function they play in serving this often-overlooked viewers.
“If they’ve one thing that weighs tons on them, I would like them to have the ability to elevate it to allow them to be free, to allow them to really feel accepted,” Emily Ann Riddle mentioned.
People Fix the World – Groundbreaking TV News Service
Norway’s TV BRA is a novel media group. Their fortnightly nationwide information program is hosted by journalists with studying disabilities or autism.
By interviewing politicians and different authority figures, the community goals to carry these in energy to account, whereas additionally altering folks’s perceptions of individuals with studying disabilities.
Our reporter William Kremer joined them at their attractive new studio in Bergen, the place the journalists shared a few of their finest tales and advised us their aspirations for the long run.
