Odd F. Lindberg - Lindberg's Documentary

Lindberg's Documentary

Lindberg made a documentary while he was a volunteer sealing inspector on the vessel Harmoni. The documentary, Seal Mourning, had its premiere on the Norwegian television station NRK on 9 February 1989, when the channel showed clips from the film. The negative attention Lindberg received from both seal hunters and the Norwegian government, as well as the public at large, was eventually so intense that he chose to move out of the country and settled abroad, in Sweden, with his wife and two children; he later moved back to Norway. The Norwegian foreign minister at the time, Thorvald Stoltenberg (father of the current (per February 2009) prime minister Jens Stoltenberg), called Lindberg up in February 1989, warning him not to let his documentary be shown on CNN because of national interests, and that the whole government stood behind him in this message to Lindberg. Lindberg taped this phonecall. (The taping would later be part of one of Lindberg's documentaries). Stoltenberg also sent the attorney general to NRK to censor material given to CNN. Lindberg eventually stopped the whole film from being broadcast on CNN, afraid to do otherwise. Clips from the film were shown on CNN, the BBC and 18 other broadcasting companies worldwide. The documentary was broadcast in its entirety by a Swedish television channel on 11 February 1989.