Erik Strand, 19.09.2026
In a commentary on the online newspaper Steigan.no on September 17, 2026, Lars Audun Bråten comments on how Norwegian media have covered the 2026 Ceuta migrant crisis. He informs that his commentary has been rejected by the newspaper Klassekampen.
Bråten points at the dominating narrative presented in Norwegian media – that what lead 80.000 people to go to Ceuta – at the same time – was a social media disinformation campaign. Bråten concedes that it is off course possible that the wrongful information that everyone who came by sea to Ceuta would get a residence permit in Spain, contributed to the stream of people, while at the same time pointing out that it goes against reason to believe thar such an amount of people would act in the same way at the same time, without a central actor coordinating the whole thing. Klassekampen concedes that it is most probable that Moroccan security agencies are behind the crisis, adding that it remains to see if NrK (state channel) and Faktisk.no will follow.
At this point I find it necessary to introduce Faktisk.no briefly to the reader. Faktisk.no. On its website, Faktisk.no present themselves as follows:
“Faktisk.no is an editorial team of journalists covering misinformation, influence operations, and fake news. The team aims to build specialized expertise in influence operations and misinformation while adopting new journalistic methods. Its purpose is to help make Norwegian society more resilient against influence operations.
Faktisk.no AS is owned by Schibsted, Aller Media, NRK, TV 2, Polaris Media, and Amedia. The editorial team operates as a collaboration between these media houses and receives no public funding. The owners each contribute NOK 1,100,000 in annual funding.
The “Tenk” department develops educational content on source criticism and consists of teachers who create teaching materials. Its goal is to strengthen education on how students can independently assess the credibility of sources and identify fake content on social media. This department operates independently of the Faktisk.no editorial team and receives funding from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training.
Faktisk.no is a non-profit organization that does not generate profit for its owners; all revenue is reinvested to further its mission. We operate in accordance with the ethical guidelines adopted by the Norwegian press in the Code of Ethics of the Norwegian Press (Vær Varsom-plakaten). Our editorial and organizational independence is safeguarded by the Media Liability Act and our articles of association, which mandate adherence to the Editor’s Code of Ethics (Redaktørplakaten). This ensures the editor’s independence from the company’s owners and other parties with interests in Faktisk.no. Faktisk.no AS is a member of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL), which is a member of the Norwegian Press Association.
Faktisk.no is part of the European fact-checking network EFCSN and the international network IFCN, and adheres to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. This entails transparency regarding accounts and funding. The editorial team is required to be impartial and politically independent, and to maintain full transparency regarding methods, use of sources, and organizational structure. The editorial team is evaluated against these criteria annually; applications and evaluations can be viewed here. You may also contact the EFCSN regarding complaints or other inquiries concerning Faktisk.no.”
Non mainstream media have at several occation argued that Faktisk.no have not held the best standards when it comes to presenting factually correct statements, and that they have critizised alternative media on false premises. A collection of articles about these aspects of Faktisk.no (in Norwegian) can be found here).
Bråten writes that Faktisk.no’s only article to this date on the Ceuta crisis concerns forces in Russia contributing to the aforementioned desinformation campaign. He also mentions that Faktisk.no does not claim to know exactly why they do so, but their speculation is that it is in order to destabilize Spain and to weaken the cooperation within the EU. Mentioning that this might be objectively true, Bråten asks why this is the most important thing to convey on the Ceuta crisis – and not why Morocco sent a massive wave of migrants into Spanish territory.
Bråten procedes to misleading information in some Norwegian media. He especially points at one online article by NrK on August 1, 2026, where the state channel quotes a Spanish journalist that the most striking thing about the crisis is that “most people” who came to Ceuta, were “young people, children who are alone”.
Not even the NrK’s own article shows any children, and everyone who has seen videos and presentations by other media, can see that most migrants were young men.
Lars Audun Bråten has contacted Faktisk.no and encouraging them to investigate an example of obvious desinformation. Faktisk.no have not responded (NrK is one of their owners). He concludes his commentary by saying that Faktisk.no seems to be more interested in pointing at the party FOR (a Norwegian party being controversial for its criticism of Norwegian financial aid to Ukraine) having ties to an new and obscure online newspaper.
Fampo 