October 14, Thоmas Nielsen, a former chief editor of the bilingual edition about the life of the Barents region BarentsObserver, met a representative of the Norwegian Barents secretariat Stig Olsen. At the meeting, Nielsen announced that the decision to dismiss him taken by the Council was withdrawn on September 28.
"This proves that the dismissal was unjustified and this case was hopeless for the Council," the newspaper ex-editor said in an interview to BarentsObserver.
One of the reasons for this turn of events was probably the strong reaction to the dismissal of Nielsen from the public and the media community in the region, and also from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, which required the Council to review its policy on the newspaper.
However, the main motive for the decision to restore the position of Nielsen was the prospect of legal proceedings between the dismissed editor and the editorial council. Earlier, the Norwegian Union of Journalists supported the decision of Nielsen to sue the owners of the BarentsObserver. Now, however, the lawsuit will be withdrawn.
But Thomas Nilsen is not going to return to the Barents Secretariat and, therefore, to BarentsObserver; he would prefer to receive a refund as a result of a job loss.
According to Stig Olsen, this solution fully suits both parties of the conflict.
Gleb Yarovoy, «7x7»
