International Courant
TV BRA
Reporter Emily Ann Riedel has needed to be taught to manage her exuberant persona
It is maybe no shock that the décor of TV BRA’s new studio is shockingly pink.
It is the favourite shade of two of the station’s reporters, Emily Ann Riedel – who wears a pink high after I go to – and Petter Bjørkmo. “I even had pink hair!” Bjørkmo tells me laughing, earlier than including that he needed to do away with it “as a result of I am a reporter – reporters must look first rate.”
All reporters at TV BRA – which implies ‘TV Good’ – are disabled or autistic; most have a studying incapacity.
Each week they put collectively an hour-long journal program masking information, leisure and sports activities, which is broadcast on a serious Norwegian streaming platform, TV2 play, and on TV BRA’s personal app and web site.
‘I’ve interior magnificence and outer magnificence’
The present is introduced in easy Norwegian and is slower than common information reviews, making it a lot simpler to observe. Between 4,000 and 5,000 folks tune in each week.
The station’s ten reporters are unfold throughout the nation, the place they work as native information correspondents.
Riedel, who has Down syndrome, lives and works within the seaside resort of Stavanger. She has needed to be taught to manage her exuberant persona.
“I’ve to observe the script and never discuss private issues – as a result of right here it’s in regards to the information. Once I work right here, I’ve to be very skilled.”
Regardless that she’s been working on the station for years, some issues are nonetheless new, just like the mascara she wears earlier than occurring digital camera, which she says places plenty of pressure on her eyelids.
TV BRA editor-in-chief Camilla Kvalheim generally acts because the channel’s make-up artist
“I do not want it as a result of I look stunning,” Riedel says with a smile. “I’ve interior magnificence and outer magnificence.”
“Sure, that is proper,” chuckles Camilla Kvalheim, the channel’s editor-in-chief – and presently additionally a make-up artist. “However within the studio, with plenty of mild and all the pieces, you look paler.”
Kvalheim and a small, non-disabled technical group produce and edit all reviews.
Though Riedel and her colleagues have gentle studying difficulties – they’ll normally converse English effectively and journey with out assist – some issues are a problem.
I watch because the group tries to grasp a brand new teleprompter system. The presenters usually must learn a line a number of occasions to get a superb impression.
“Generally it may be tough to inform what’s on the taking part in playing cards, so we have now to do it over and over,” says Kvalheim. She additionally has to offer on-the-job coaching for her group, who didn’t research journalism at college earlier than becoming a member of the TV station.
Nonetheless, her expectations of her group are excessive.
“She says, ‘Are you able to please try this once more? Are you able to repeat what you mentioned? Are you able to look immediately into the digital camera, I need you to be good – this is essential,’” says Riedel.
“And when she’s proud, after we’re executed, she says, ‘I like this half! I like this half! That is what I wish to see! Use your power to get the perfect out of your self!’”
It has been identified that individuals with studying difficulties may be held again by overly optimistic suggestions, stopping them from growing their expertise. That is not an issue right here.
“If we wish to be seen by the general public, we have now to look skilled,” Kvalheim says unapologetically. “In the event that they wish to be revered as reporters and journalists, they need to 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 mental disabilities in a nursing house in Bergen, and determined to pursue a ardour for filmmaking. She found that as quickly as she pulled out a digital camera, the dynamic between her and the folks she labored with modified.
Reporter Svein Andre Hofsø is understood for his ironic interrogation
“Once we labored on these movies collectively, all of the sudden we had been a crew, we had been a group. I wasn’t in control of them; we had been equal,” Kvalheim remembers.
When she found that her artistic collaborators had loads to say in regards to the world, she was inspired to proceed the work, and the momentum steadily grew.
Now it is a nationwide community, with an actual studio — however Kvalheim admits her reporters do not get the identical type of cash as their colleagues at different networks.
The channel receives state funding and derives revenue from supplying a weekly present to TV2, however funds are extraordinarily tight.
So it is good that the group is motivated by issues apart from cash. In Norway, as in any nation, folks with studying disabilities face issues starting from low employment participation to entry to assist and housing. With the ability to perceive the information permits the broader group to marketing campaign on these points.
‘Speaking about rights’
A current report by Petter Bjørkmo is an instance of this. He visited a lady with extra extreme studying difficulties, who lives in sheltered lodging in Trondheim. “The town – the federal government – needs to remove its groceries,” he informed me, which means that its funds could be escorted to the shops by an support employee.
“They informed her to go surfing. However she will be able to’t! As a result of she can not converse very effectively, it’s tough for her to purchase meals on-line. She wants assist!”
Bjørkmo’s report obtained a “enormous response” from viewers, Kvalheim says, though it didn’t trigger the native authorities to rethink their place.
“TV BRA is essential,” agrees Svein Andre Hofsø, one other reporter. “As a result of we’re speaking about folks with disabilities, and what our rights are in actual life.”
Hofsø, a touring information reporter from Oslo, was already well-known earlier than becoming a member of TV BRA.
Petter Bjørkmo is one other reporter from TV BRA
He performed the title position in a 2013 movie, Detective Downs. Earlier than the final parliamentary elections, in 2021, Andre had the chance to placed on his detective’s fedora once more, however this time his activity was to interrogate varied politicians about their insurance policies in his ironic method.
In a single scene, he sits on a bench outdoors the parliament constructing in Oslo, pretending to learn a newspaper. A politician, Jonas Gahr Støre – the chief of the Labor Social gathering – strolls out, however behind a pillar a stooge waits to ambush him. As Hofsø watches, the stooge throws a butterfly web over the unsuspecting Støre.
Within the subsequent scene we see Støre in a chair in a basement. Hofsø shines a lamp within the nook in his face and exhibits him images of individuals with disabilities who look unhappy and lonely. “If we vote for you, what’s going to you do for us?”
At this level Støre explains its coverage for the disabled. And after the elections he certainly turned prime minister.
Camilla Kvalheim laughs when she remembers the assembly. “That was very humorous. Each time we have met him since, he is been like, “Oh, are you going to catch me in that butterfly web?!”
The longer term Norwegian Prime Minister was interviewed by TV BRA
On the day I go to TV BRA, they’re visited by Silje Hjemdal, an area MP for the right-wing Progress Social gathering.
A group of 4 reporters query her about all the pieces from roads to immigration, and what she thinks in regards to the plans for Oslo’s lavish new nationwide theater (being from Bergen, she has some doubts in regards to the mission). Kvalheim can also be there and directs the questions.
Hjemdal’s solutions are severe, however there’s additionally heat within the encounter; she is a long-term supporter of the channel. “Plenty of politicians now know what TV BRA is, so I would say it is a massive, massive advance simply within the final 5 years,” she tells me.
‘Making TV in a brand new method’
TV BRA isn’t the one TV information channel provided by folks with studying disabilities. Comparable, albeit smaller, applications exist in Iceland and Denmark. In the meantime, Slovenia, the Netherlands and a number of other different international locations provide an “simple information service”: simplified reviews, though not introduced by folks with studying disabilities.
This kind of service is important for TV BRA viewers. “I believe this TV channel is essential for our group,” mentioned Anne-Britt Ekerhovd, a fan of the channel who has a studying incapacity. “They clarify issues very effectively. In different information like NRK they clarify it too onerous for us to know. TV BRA is far simpler to know.”
One other fan of the channel, Espen Giertsen, agrees: “There’s one thing particular about it: they make TV in a brand new method.”
TV BRA reporters are very conscious of the vital position they play in serving this usually uncared for viewers.
“If they’ve tons of weight on them, I need them to raise it to allow them to be free and really feel accepted,” says Emily Ann Riedel.
Folks Fixing the World – The groundbreaking TV information service
TV BRA in Norway is a novel media group. Their fortnightly nationwide information present is introduced by reporters with studying disabilities or autistic.
By interviews with politicians and different authority figures, the channel goals to carry the highly effective to account whereas concurrently altering the best way folks with studying disabilities are seen.
Our reporter William Kremer joins them of their flashy new studio in Bergen, the place the journalists share a few of their greatest tales and inform us about their ambitions for the longer term.
Contained in the world’s first TV station for and by folks with mental disabilities
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