mms

The Norwegian newspaper VG has had the same low-resolution picture on the front-page of their online newspaper for about 24 hours now. The mms-picture has been taken by an anonymous person, who witnessed when the police picked up an ill-fated 40-year old Somalian from the mosque in Trondheimsveien in Oslo. The front of Norwegian online newspapers are frequently changed, so this is rather unique. Apperantly VG were willing to pay more for the picture than Dagbladet. It is actually indicated that the mms-photographer was paid between 10 000 - 20 000 NOK. Questions concerning what happens when everybody becomes potential photographers of any incident are obviously interesting and ethically problematic. I live next door to the mosque, I was probably home when the police picked him up. Would I have taken the picture?

The 40 year old psychiatric patient from Somalia, stabbed, injured several and killed one person on the tram on Tuesday, and the media have naturally been full of stories concerning the undesired event, about Somalians in Oslo, about psychiatric treatment in Norway in genereal and of asylum seekers specifically.