Taitung, eastern Taiwan, March 11 (CNA) A radio and TV executive from Norway said in southeastern Taiwan Wednesday that he wants to follow Taiwan in establishing a TV channel that speaks for his own indigenous tribe.

“You have Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV). We do not have our own Sami television channel yet, ” Nils Johan Heatta, director of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s (NRK’s) Sami Radio, told CNA Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference (WITBC) being held in Taitung County.

Heatta is scheduled to take over the chairmanship of the WITBC — a global media network, in 2012.

“One of my dreams is to be able to launch a TV channel for the Sami people,” Heatta added.

Norway has a Sami population of 40,000. Other regions with significant Sami populations include Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Heatta also noted that a Norwegian policy has unexpectedly raised the Sami people’s awareness of their own identity at a time when the government is working to assimilate the tribe.

“There has been a very strong assimilation policy from the governments in Sweden, Norway and Finland to assimilate the Sami, ” Heatta said, adding that “it was forbidden to speak the Sami language at school in these countries up until 1958.”

Although Sami Radio, which is part of the Norwegian government-owned NRK, started broadcasting in 1946, it was part of the Norwegian government’s efforts to bring Norwegian news and Norwegian society to the Sami, who did not understand Norwegian, he noted.

“But the effect was the opposite to the one desired,” he went on.

“The Sami people suddenly could hear their own language on the radio and it told them that yes, our language is usable and useful in media, ” Heatta said.

As a result, young Sami people started a “cultural uprising” to fight for their identity, he said.

Heatta said he was impressed by the organizers of the conference in Taiwan, the second of its kind — Norway will host the next conference in 2012.

He was among dozens of senior executives of the nine members of the World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network (WITBN) attending the biennial conference hosted by TITV and Public Television Services (PTS).

TITV, which is under Taiwan’s public broadcasting group Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) with PTS, was established Dec. 1, 2004 after activists spent years of effort on its creation.

As a WITBN member, TITV has been working with indigenous media organizations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa and Wales on news, staff and program exchanges over the past two years. (By Alex Jiang)

More Info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=182320&CtNode=39