The prestigeous US university Columbia has voted filmmaker Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen victory over PST Supreme Court the legal ruling of the year for 2015.
The annual prize Columbia Global Freedom of Expression Prize was created last year by the university’s headmaster Lee C. Bollinger, and this is the second time it is awarded.
The Supreme Court in November gave Rolfsen full support in his claim that the Police Security Service (PST) may not use raw footage from his documentary about Norwegian radical Islamist groups.
PST seized footage from Rolfsen’s home on the 8. of June. The Oslo District Court and a unanimous Court of Appeal concluded that the seizure was lawful. But Rolfsen appealed to the Supreme Court, which unanimously came to the opposite conclusion.
The press release from Columbia University emphasized that the ruling was unanimous and that the Supreme Court emphasized protecting journalistic sources despite the fact that the raw footage was to be used in a counter-terrorism investigation.
“Contrary to the widespread international tendency to sacrifice freedom of expression in times of crisis, this ruling recognises the crucial importance of a free press,” the press release from the university says.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
