Greenland is the world’s largest island with 267 miles from the southern tip to the northern tip, where you mainly have to get there by boat or plane. And with a population of around 56,000, it is the world’s most sparsely populated country.
This in turn means that there are few journalists and Anraq Nielsen, who works for KNR, the public service company in Greenland and is chairman of the Greenlandic Journalists’ Association, tells about the critical situation.
– In the long run, it will be a democratic problem and it is not just journalists who are missing here, she says.
Get to complete the training
She describes a situation where too few apply for journalism training and even fewer complete it.
– Those who have completed the journalism training are instead offered jobs as communicators and usually at a higher salary.
Working as a journalist in Greenland also means a huge coverage area with around fifty scattered smaller towns and villages along the coasts.
88 percent in Greenland speak the indigenous language Kalaallisut, which is called Greenlandic in everyday life. Some also speak Danish and several newspapers and websites publish news in both languages.
She describes the situation at KNR as a place where people run out of themselves.
– When we become too few, some work far too hard and it becomes a vicious circle, especially for the reporters who are bilingual, she says.
“It also needs to be portrayed”
When Arnaq Nielsen looks at the Greenland image, she is appalled.
– It is not only climate change, social problems and the issue of independence that are relevant here, there are so many good examples and positive developments that also need to be portrayed.
She believes that the Danish media reports one-sidedly and that the picture out into the world easily becomes the same.
– In order to do constructive journalism, we have to highlight the life and culture that exists here, whole families that work and there are quite a lot of sunshine stories.
On Friday, January 3, there will be a second part about Greenland, where a young Greenlandic influencer wants to empower young girls.