Mina Helen Hadjian (; 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 work-ethics have 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 (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

, 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 Østfold, 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 wa ...

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipal ...

. She has studied market economics at the

BI Norwegian Business School BI Norwegian Business School () is a Norwegian specialized university that provides education and conducts research primarily in the fields of business and economics, marketing, strategy, management, and administration. BI is organized as a self ...

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 wi ...

in London.

Radio career

Hadjian began her career as a producer and 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'' (). The program received the lowest possible rating of 1 by newspaper VG, and the online edition VG.nett wrote on 17 April 2007 that ''Mina'' would "tattoo the 1-rating on her backside," in an attempt to copy

Ari Behn Ari Mikael Behn (; , or ; 30 September 1972 – 25 December 2019) was a Norwegian author, playwright, and visual artist, best known for his marriage to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway from 2002 to 2017. He held no title or special status, an ...

's alleged tattoo of 6-rating (the best) on his shoulder. She hosted the controversial radio show ''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 director ...

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

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

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 The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

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 artist and painter Marianne Aulie for a broadcast at

during which Aulie accused artist

Morten Abel Morten Abel Knutsen (born 15 October 1962), better known by his stage name Morten Abel is a Norwegian pop artist, and one of Norway's best-selling domestic artists. Career Morten Abel was born and grew up near Bodø, but moved to Stavanger ...

and director

Marius Holst Marius Holst (born 15 January 1965) is a Norwegian filmmaker, a producer and a screenwriter. Education Holst studied at the London International Film School. In 1990, his diploma film was nominated for the Amanda Award for Best Short Film, and ...

of attempting to drug and rape her during a party in the mid 1990s. The interview left Hadjian emotional and moved to tears during the broadcast. Aulie and Hadjian were later criticized for the broadcast, while Abel and Holst denied the allegation through their lawyers. NRK journalist

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 Corpor ...

and other celebrities responded negatively, with Johansen stating "She's destroying NRK." NRK P3 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 was announced that she had been removed by NRK P3. The background for her removal was an incident that took place during the airing of her talk-show ''Mina'' where the staff experienced technical difficulties. Hadjian responded by profanely scolding her staff and producers live on-air. The network subsequently cancelled all of her remaining shows, and filled the air-time with a "Night-temp". Shortly after, the network publicly announced 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 women entertainers Alumni of the University of Greenwich BI Norwegian Business School alumni NRK people Norwegian television presenters Norwegian radio personalities