Mina Helen Hadjian ( fa, مینا حاجیان; born 1975) is a Norwegian-Iranian talk-show host and radio personality. Although widely successful, her shows were known for raising controversial topics, and her and work-ethics has been widely debated.

Early life and education

Born in Teheran, Hadjian fled Iran with her family in 1979 after the

islamic revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

, and was raised first in London and later in Norway when her family settled on

Kråkerøy Kråkerøy is an island and a former municipality in Viken county, Norway. The island of Kråkerøy was separated from Glemmen as a municipality of its own January 1, 1908. At that time Kråkerøy had a population of 3,311. The rural municipality ...

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

. She has studied market economics at the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo and Marketing Communications, French and Italian at the

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...

in London.

Radio career

Starting out as a producer / director at MTV Europe in London. She has also worked with the French news network Channel 24 as well as Norwegian radio station NRJ. Hadjian made her television debut on Monday 16 April 2007 with the show Unseen: Mina ( no, Usett: Mina). The program got the lowest possible rating of 1 by newspaper VG, and the online edition VG.nett wrote 17 April 2007 that Mina would "tattoo the 1-rating on her backside," in an attempt to copy Ari Behn s alleged tattoo of 6-rating (the best) on his shoulder. She hosted the controversial Radio show called "Mina" on

NRK P3 NRK P3 is a nationwide digital radio channel operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). It was established as NRK's third radio channel in 1993, and was the result of the NRK radio channel reform initiated in 1992 by radio dire ...

until 2007 when she was sacked following a string of controversies. During the autumn of 2008 she launched her new website-based venture, in which she would act as both radio-host and

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger. It consisted of weekly broadcasts where she interviewed celebrities. Hadjian was also a host on the television talk show Studio 5, which aired on the channel FEM from 2008 to 2010.

Controversies

In November 2006, a commercial was made for her show on

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

in which she stated, "Hi, this is Veronica Orderud, and I listen to Mina every day. If you do not do the same, I will kill you." Orderud was convicted of a notorious triple-murder in 2000, and the ad was considered to be vulgar and tasteless. In March 2007, she interviewed designer and artist Marianne Aulie live, and during the broadcast Aulie named two high-profile celebrities as alleged sex-offenders. The interview with Aulie left Hadjian so moved that she shed tears during the broadcast. The reaction to the interview was immediate,

Jahn Otto Johansen Jahn Otto Johansen (3 May 1934 – 1 January 2018) was a Norwegian journalist, newspaper editor, foreign correspondent and non-fiction writer. He worked for the newspaper '' Morgenposten'' from 1956 to 1966, for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp ...

at the NRK and other celebrities responded negatively and Johansen said, "She's destroying NRK."

producer Tone Donald defended Hadjian and stated that "She runs with real-time radio, where she explains how she feels, like today. I wish that Mina can continue to express her feelings." On 17 October 2007 it became clear that she had been sacked by the NRK P3. The background for this was that during the airing of her talk-show "Mina" the staff experienced technical difficulties. Hadjian responded by profanely scolding her staff and her producers live on air. The network subsequently cancelled all her remaining shows, and filled the air-time with a "Night-temp". Shortly after the network announced publicly that her contract had been terminated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hadjian, Mina 1975 births Living people Mass media people from Tehran Refugees in Norway Iranian emigrants to Norway Norwegian entertainers Alumni of the University of Greenwich BI Norwegian Business School alumni NRK people Norwegian television presenters Norwegian radio personalities