A Norwegian reporter with the Oslo-based newspaper Dagsavisen tried to ask some questions to PM Modi after a joint press briefing with Norway’s PM Jonas Gahr. Lyng grabbed headlines after calling out to PM Modi and asking: “Why don\u2019t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?”<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Photo credit: ANI).<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Norway has turned into a full-blown controversy in Indian political circles after a journalist heckled him following a press briefing. Helle Lyng, a Norwegian reporter with the Oslo-based newspaper Dagsavisen, tried to ask some questions to the prime minister after a joint press briefing with Norway’s PM Jonas Gahr. Lyng grabbed headlines after calling out to PM Modi and asking: “Why don\u2019t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?” PM Modi and his Norwegian counterpart did not respond as they were already on their way out of the venue.<\/p>\n
In a post on X later, Lyng shared a short clip of the confrontation. She wrote: “Primeminister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to.” The journalist added: “Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, Emirates & Cuba. It is our job to question the powers we cooperate with.”<\/p>\n
After the episode blew up on social media and triggered political reactions in India and Norway, the Indian embassy in Oslo held a press conference later in the day and invited Lyng to attend. But the presser also turned tense as Lyng asked questions about India’s credibility and human rights record. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary Sibi George gave a lengthy response that touched on India’s civilisation as well as the origins of chess and yoga.<\/p>\n
Who is\u00a0Helle Lyng?<\/p>\n
The incident has naturally thrown spotlight onto Helle Lyng, who has been covering political and international affairs and was part of the media contingent reporting on PM Modi’s visit to Norway — the fourth leg of the prime minister’s ongoing five-nation tour. A brief look at her X profile shows that Lyng has not been very active on the social media platform. Her profile on Muck Rack shows that the journalist has worked as a freelancer for a number of Norwegian publications and MSN. She currently works with Dagsavisen, which reportedly has a circulation of fewer than 14,000. Her work indicates that Lyng has been critical of United States President Donald Trump, but has praised “superpower” China and the Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Norwegian reporter with the Oslo-based newspaper Dagsavisen tried to ask some questions to PM Modi after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[85],"tags":[46052,45882,157,156,28886,45323,45342,2033],"class_list":["post-86725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oslo","tag-dagsavisen","tag-helle-lyng","tag-norway","tag-oslo","tag-pm-modi","tag-pm-modi-europe-tour","tag-pm-modi-norway-visit","tag-press-freedom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116604056815505897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}