A senior Norwegian politician was facing criticism on Wednesday for playing Pokemon Go on her mobile phone during a parliamentary hearing about the country’s defence policy.
Liberal Party leader Trine Skei Grande was caught on camera during a foreign affairs and defence committee hearing catching a Pokemon – it was not immediately clear which one – after asking a question to a group of military experts.
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The Liberals are a key supporter in parliament of the minority coalition in power led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
“It is crucial that we take our responsibility in the NATO alliance and the Arctic seriously. We have been talking about very important things today,” Oeyvind Halleraker, the committee’s deputy leader told the daily VG, which first reported the story.
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Grande did not immediately reply to requests for a comment by Reuters.
Grande told BG over text message that “some of us have heads that listen better when doing something brain dead at the same time. We are not all alike.”
She later told VG that she had stopped playing the game after other members of the committee said they had taken offence.
The popularity of Pokemon Go, developed by Niantic and an affiliate of Japan’s Nintendo Co Ltd, has had some unintended consequences.
On Wednesday, the Philippines became the latest country to ban it from government offices following similar decisions by Southeast Asian neighbours because of its impact on productivity.
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In July, a reporter attending a U.S. State Department briefing on ISIS was called out for playing Pokemon Go.
The State Department spokesman was detailing the latest on the fight against ISIS when he stopped mid-sentence after he noticed the unnamed reporter looking for Pokemon on his phone and called him out.