Ben Hamilton
January 11th, 2023

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Out with the old, in with the new and cosmopolitan (photo: Jens Astrup)

TV 2 Lorry, the Frederiksberg-based broadcaster that has been serving the 34 municipalities of Denmark’s capital region (and beyond) with news since the beginning of the 1990s, has changed its name to TV2 Kosmopol – as of today. 

All its logos, facades and signs have been duly altered, along with its website to tv2kosmopol.dk, but the biggest change is its focus, and the clue is in the name.

From now on, TV2 will cease comparing Copenhagen to other Danish cities, instead looking further afield to foreign metropolises with a more cosmopolitan scope. 

Less coverage of yokels
Morten Kjær Petersen, the head of TV2 Kosmopol, wants news stories to be accessible by all Copenhageners, not a select few.

“Where we have previously tried to cover each of our 34 municipalities more locally, in the future we will focus on producing journalism that is relevant to more people – namely all of us who live in Denmark’s only metropolis,” he explained.

“The name Kosmopol contains precisely the new signal we want to send. We look up and look out into the world at other metropolises that are also struggling with the same problems as us. Because when it comes to challenges and opportunities, Copenhagen has more in common with Stockholm and Berlin than with Varde and Hirtshals. Other metropolises also have areas such as Vestegnen, the whiskey belt, the big city and suburbs.”

The largest of them all
TV2 Kosmopol is the largest of the eight TV2 regional stations. All of them are independent companies with their own board, strategy and finances, which are derived from not only advertising, but also the tax payer.

For example, for the 2020-21 financial year, each channel received 68 million kroner from the TV licence pool. 

‘Lorry’ took its name from Frederik Laurentius Feilberg, the owner of the former amusement park in Frederiksberg where TV2 Kosmopol is today based, which he acquired in 1896.

No Golden Globes for films with Danish input
Two films with strong Danish links failed to win Golden Globes last night. Danish director Tobias Lindholm will be saddened that Eddie Redmayne failed to win Best Supporting Actor for ‘The Good Nurse’, losing out to Ke Huy Quan, the same actor who played Short Round in ‘India Jones and The Temple of Doom’, for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’. And several home-based stars – including Croatian-Danish actor Zlatko Burić – will be disappointed that ‘Triangle of Sadness’ lost out to ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ in the category of Best Film – Musical or Comedy, as well as missing out on the Best Supporting Actress award, which went to Angela Bassett instead of Dolly De Leon. 

Uni tells its students they’re not allowed to use acclaimed chatbot
Aarhus University has banned its students from using ChatGPT, a chatbot that uses AI to answer almost every conceivable question. The university, fearful that its students will ask ChatGPT to write their essays, has clarified rules that were hitherto a little vague. “It is a requirement that the students solve their tasks independently and individually. You don’t do that if you use a chatbot,” university academic Anna Bak Maigaard told TV2. “ChatGPT has resonated in education systems worldwide. It challenges education at all levels – both for exams and teaching.” However, her colleague Professor Per Nikolai Bukh, who specialises in financial management, said he intends to use ChatGPT in his classes to challenge his students into deciding whether “it is correct, and how it could be better or more academic”. Try it out here if you can be bothered to queue for half a day.

Odense mayor relieved after Russian steps down as HC Andersen award jury head
Anastasia Arkhipova has stepped down as president of the International Council for Books for Young People (IBBY) in response to criticism of her future chairing of the jury presiding over the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Awards. For the last four years, she has been a board member of the Russian Moscow Artists Association, which actively promotes propaganda about Russia’s righteous role in the War in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Queen Margrethe withdrew her patronship from the awards, which she had held since 1992, and over 10 countries’ IBBY chapters signed a formal letter of protest at Arkhipova’s election as president in September, but not Denmark’s. However, criticism further escalated in Denmark over the weekend, not least from Peter Rahbæk, the mayor of Odense, the birthplace of HC Andersen.

More popular than sliced paper: Harry’s book is top of the charts
‘Spare’, the new memoir by Prince Harry, is currently the bestselling product at Bog & Idé, let alone book! The memoir went on sale on Tuesday, the same day as in the UK and most other countries where it has been translated. “It is currently selling better than A4 paper,” confirmed Marianne Lyngby Pedersen, the head of Indeks Retail, the owner of Bog & Idé. It is also number one at Saxo, where pre-orders started to accelerate last Friday – the same day that significant portions of the book surfaced in the press after it was mistakenly published in Spain ahead of schedule.

Frederik to launch World Capital of Architecture year next week
Crown Prince Frederik will make a speech at City Hall on January 17 to officially launch Copenhagen’s year as the ‘UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture’. The prince is the patron of the focus, which will include more than 300 events. ”It is a unique opportunity to showcase what Copenhagen offers within architecture, urban development and sustainable solutions, and it is a lever for dialogue about the development of our capital city,” enthused the capital’s mayor,  Sophie Hæstorp Andersen. “If Copenhagen is to remain one of the best cities in the world to live in, we must tackle the city’s challenges such as climate change, rising water levels, lack of housing, surplus of soil from building projects, and a Metro that needs to be expanded.”

New visitor record for Museum of Copenhagen
Some 90,000 guests visited the Museum of Copenhagen during 2022 – a new record. “When we stood at the beginning of the year and were closed due to corona, we did not dare to hope that so many people would pass the museum,” museum director Louise Jacobsen told TV 2 Lorry … sorry TV2 Kosmopol. The Museum of Copenhagen moved from Vesterbrogade to its current home at Stormgade 18 in 2020, where it is now just down the road from the National Museum of Denmark. 

Newsletter praises Danish gallery owner accused of racism
The Artnet newsletter has praised a Danish gallery owner for refusing to cave into cries of racism. Several Chinese passers-by took offence at artwork that depicted a perfume bottle in the style of Chanel No 5 with the words “N’19 COVID CHINA”, and the case has since last week started to go somewhat viral. However, Søren Vilhelm is adamant the art is not racist, telling Hyperallergic magazine he would not be dictated to by “young naive Chinese who were brought up to believe that art should only be beautiful and in no way be critical of anyone”. Nevertheless, his defence has been a little contradictory. While he claims he has been misunderstood, he also professes that there is no right and wrong in art.