Antics by Norway's 'russ', reveling high-school students who celebrate impending final exams with often unbridled debauchery, have caused a new controversy after a stripping stunt was filmed and publicized via the Internet.
The traditional jumpsuit of the red russ, even more provocative when removed.
A 19-year-old girl promoted her campaign to be the local russ president by stripping naked at a student assembly at Atlanten High School in Kristiansund two weeks ago.
This received a new wave of publicity when someone posted a video of the performance online and Norwegian news site TV 2 Nettavisen made the controversial decision to provide a link to the video on their site.
TV 2 Nettavisen's editor Gunnar Stavrum backed the decision to point readers to the video.
"The story has already been made public. The performance took place in public. The video is of public interest. It illustrates how far the russ go. In addition, it would be a bit strange to write about it without showing the video," Stavrum said. The link was later removed from the story.
Russ foreman Louise Garhol told TV 2 Nettavisen that she could understand the fuss, but pointed out that the stripping was just one of several election stunts, and that "two years ago a boy went even further" without attracting any attention.
Secretary General of the Norwegian Press Association Per Edgar Kokkvold called the TV 2 Nettavisen decision to link to the video "speculative, stupid and an invitation to all crackpots that want to promote things like this".
