We cannot make do without surveillance, and even political actors must expect to be kept under observation if they espouse extreme positions. But we must keep surveillance under control. This article tells the story of the information about me that had lain in the files of the police security service and to which I gained access in 2001. It also records some reflections that have emerged in my mind about ways to improve legal protection for people who come to the attention of the state security services.2
I stood trial with Owen Wilkes in the Oslo City Court in May 1981 and then in the Norwegian Supreme Court in February 1982. While I have gained access to my (illegally assembled) secret police records up to 1977, I have been refused access to the (presumably more interesting) records for the period 1977-82 – despite the fact that there is no longer any reasonable justification for classifying them. Photo: Arne Pedersen, Dagbladet
As one author summed up the new women’s movement of the 1970s, ‘What was personal became political’.3 This was also the case for me. I had long been interested in security policy and intelligence matters, but not particularly concerned with political or other kinds of surveillance. I thought – perhaps somewhat naively – that a person who is not involved in any kind of subversive activity does not have much to lose by being subjected to a limited amount of surveillance. As regards closed-circuit television cameras in public places, this is still my basic position.
