Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
In January, the Danish national television (DR) aired a documentary called Greenland’s White Gold, which claims that Denmark has been illegally exporting a valuable mineral, cryolite, used for aluminium production, from Greenland for 133 years, worth $58 billion. After a flurry of criticism, the film was taken off the air, and DR’s editor-in-chief resigned, The Guardian reports .
The documentary caused outrage in Greenland, which is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark. In the local capital Nuuk, the film is considered a shock to the national consciousness. More than a third of Greenlanders said that the documentary would influence their choice in the elections.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Muthe B. Egede said that Denmark could have earned more than £446 billion from the Ivittut field alone. However, Danish economists have questioned these figures, saying that it is not about profit but about total sales.
Although DR initially defended the film, it was eventually published, and the company admitted that some of the data, including the sales chart, had been cut from the previous version. One of the Greenlandic ministers called Copenhagen’s reaction “exaggerated” and noted that only one version of history is allowed in Denmark – that it was good to Greenland.
