Challenges to Investment Ethics in the Norwegian Petroleum Fund: a Newspaper Debate

Abstract

In this article I will describe the main elements of the Norwegian press’s moral confrontation with the Government Pension Fund’s ethical investment management when it was in an introductory phase in early 2005, with special emphasis on one newspaper, Stavanger Aftenblad. The press criticized the fund’s fresh investment profile and intended exclusionary practice before it had really st arted in earnest. Then I will focus on how the press’s unilateral criticism of the fund’s investment practice at the ti me ove rshadowed a discussion of any defects i n the ethical pri nciples f or in vestment. And I will focus on the press’s lack of distinguishing between information and sensation. In conclusion I point out that in 2006 the press has abandoned its critical stance from 2005 and has now a tendency to idealize the fund’s exclusionary practice and the underlying principles.