"Herrer i eget hus". Finnmarksloven i media

Abstract

In 2005, the Norwegian Parliament passed the Finnmark Act, with ownership of 96 % of Finnmark transferred from the State to the inhabitants of Finnmark. This article discusses the dominant arguments for and against the Act in two local newspapers in Finnmark. The debate was intense. Would the Finnmark Act lead to private ownership based on ethnicity, or equal ownership? Different understandings of equity, justice and ethnicity were used rhetorically by those against the law and also by those who were positive. Fear of privatization was a dominant argument based on a democratic view where no one should have private ownership.