Greenlanders mull whether Danish belongs in their news

Over the past week, Greenlanders have been wrestling with the issue about whether Danish subtitles should still be on Greenland’s television news.

Greenland’s news show Qanorooq is a Greenlandic-language show, but during its broadcast, news has also been subtitled in Danish for the 15 per cent of Greenland’s population who speak Danish.

Two weeks ago, television viewers and even local television news reporters at Qanorooq were suddenly surprised to learn from Greenland’s Atuagalliutit newspaper that Qanorooq planned to stop Danish news subtitles. Apparently, the management at the KNR Greenlandic national television service decided that Qanorooq should stop subtitling news in Danish, and that the resources should be put toward better research and journalism.

One week after the decision to stop subtitling surfaced, the KNR management decided to keep the news subtitled in Danish. KNR leaders plans to stop all Danish subtitles on March 1.