Erling Borgen started his career as a journalist in the weekly paper Orientering, where he worked from 1969 to 1973. From 1973 to 1975 he was editor of the student newspaper Universitas. After that, he worked as a journalist in Forbrukerrapporten from 1975 to 1976 and in the daily Arbeiderbladet from 1977 to 1979, until he in 1979 started working for NRK Dagsrevyen (TV news).
In 1988 he got the position as NRK's correspondent in Latin America, where he had his headquarters in Santiago, Chile. He stayed there until 1992. Back in Norway he worked four more years for the TV news, until he got his second correspondent job for NRK. This time in Asia, with headquarters in Beijing, China.
During the years he worked as a foreign correspondent in Latin Amerika and Asia, Erling Borgen made about 50 documentaries for NRK.
Erling Borgen has won several journalist awards. In 1982 he received "Narvesenprisen" for excellent journalism, for his work. In 1992 he was awarded "Human Rights Award" from the humanitarian organisation Norwegian People's Aid for his television documentaries from Latin America, and in 1995 he received the SKUP-award, silver diploma for the disclosure of the Norwegian oil company Statoil's secret mapping of homosexual leaders in their own company.
Erling Borgen has written seven books. Among the titles: The Adventures of Reksten (Reksten's eventyr), 1982, The Bergesen Dynasty (Huset Bergesen), 1984, Only a Dream, a Latin American Journey (Bare en drøm, en latin-amerikansk reise), 1992 and Red Dream, My Encounter with China (Rød drøm, mitt møte med Kina), 1998.
In addition Erling Borgen has written to plays: 11 Days and Nights (11 døgn), 1992, a play about human rights, and Die Flagstad, 1995 (in co-operation with Agnete G. Haaland), bought by Agder Teater.
When he returned to Norway from his job as a foreign correspondent in China in 1999, Borgen decided to leave NRK and start his own production company, Borgen Production as. The company makes documentaries for both national and international audiences. Among clients and collaborating partners we have NRK, TV2, Norwegian Church Aid and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In August 2002 Erling Borgen received NOK 500.000,- from the Freedom of Expression Foundation (Fritt Ord), to establish the TV foundation INSIGHT (INNSIKT). INSIGHT specializes in production of television documentaries about human rights, art and culture.
In October 2005 he was awarded the prestigious "Freelancer of the Year" award, given by the Norwegian Freelancer Association for his film The Ambassador. The jury claimed the film to be a great example of untraditional journalism on foreign news events.
