Erling Hall-Hofsø

Who was Erling Hall-Hofsø?

Erling Hall-Hofsø was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party.

In his young days he was a boxer for the workers' sports club Harstad AIF. He became a member of the central board of the Workers' Youth League in 1938. In 1946 he was hired as a journalist in the Labour newspaper in Harstad, Folkeviljen. He was promoted to editor-in-chief already in 1947. He remained here until 1956, when the newspaper was incorporated by Tromsø-based newspaper Nordlys.

Hall-Hofsø became famous in 1953. His newspaper printed a short piece about an attempted rape which had occurred in Harstad. The police demanded that Hall-Hofsø unveil his source for the news story, but he refused. He was sentenced to jail for maximum three months, with the option of being released if he unveiled his source. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Norway, who sided with the prosecutors. After seventeen days of imprisonment, Hall-Hofsø was released on 3 March 1953 because the source stood forward. A chapter in Martin Eide's book Den redigerende makt is devoted to the incident.

After Folkeviljen was amalgamated into Nordlys, he became leader of the newspaper's Harstad office.