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VG and Aftenposten: Publish Breivik’s Comments
Below is Fjordman’s response to Norwegian media outlets after one of them published falsehoods about him — deliberately or otherwise — in relation to the Anders Behring Breivik case.

On December 23, 2011, the newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) ran an online article entitled “Slik var kontakten mellom ‘Fjordman’ og Breivik” — “This is what the contact was like between ‘Fjordman’ and Breivik.” That same afternoon the public broadcaster NRK also quoted information that came directly from confidential statements I had given to Norwegian police in the fall of 2011.

The police thus managed to leak to both the country’s largest newspaper and its largest TV and radio broadcaster on the same day.

Leaks to the mass media in the Breivik case have continued. They involve not only me, but also other witnesses. Aftenposten published a story based on the statements of survivors from the UtĂžya massacre. Police lawyer Christian Hatlo admitted that the numerous media leaks have become a serious problem for them. Some witnesses no longer dare tell the police what they know, because they fear being exposed in the press.

In my case, the leaks wouldn’t have been so bad if only the reports by VG and NRK had accurately reflected what my police statement says. Unfortunately, the two media outlets did no such thing. Since this is classified information, protected by official police secrecy, the general public cannot verify for themselves whether this is true or not.

The VG article was scandalous, full of distortions, half-truths and several outright lies. After I sent them a series of furious emails in which I more or less openly threatened them with an expensive libel suit, they suddenly got cold feet and decided to publish a minor apology for one of their worst and most obviously false allegations, but by no means for all of them.

I have never met Anders Behring Breivik in my life, something which both he himself and the police investigation have confirmed to be true. I have also never talked to him on the telephone, chatted with him or anything like that. I had literally never seen that man’s face before until it started popping up in the mass media following the terror attacks on July 22.

I did, however, receive a tiny handful of emails from him in late 2009 and early 2010. I made no attempt to hide this fact from either the press or the police. I printed them out at the offices of the law firm Staff in Oslo after I had showed them to my lawyers there. I gave them to the police as soon as I walked in for questioning. These emails contained absolutely nothing about bombs, shooting or anything of that sort. I seriously doubt whether they contained a single piece of important information that the police didn’t already have. Nevertheless, I gave to them what little I had. That’s all I know about Mr. Breivik, and it isn’t much.

The police have concluded that I have a high credibility as a witness because what I have told them has generally turned out to the true. They have also concluded that I cannot be charged with anything criminal, and that I told the truth when I said that I did not know Breivik and did not have any relationship with him in any form, apart from indirect contact at the website Document.no where many people posted comments. This is where he once made an attempt to contact me by email. These emails contain nothing whatsoever of criminal interest, however.

Janne Kristiansen, director of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), has indicated that Breivik wrote nothing about his terror plans to anybody before the attacks. That includes me. On the contrary, he worked hard to maintain a moderate façade, with considerable success.

VG turned my police statement 180°. They made it sound as if I had been in close contact with Breivik and egged him on with my “extreme” views. I didn’t write anything extreme at all in those emails. There were three or four of them, none longer than about two sentences. People send longer and more extreme emails to their dentist than I sent to Anders Behring Breivik.

When I pressed them on this issue, and threatened with a libel suit they finally apologized for their “mistake”. I’m not at all certain it was a mistake, however. There was nothing in my emails that could be understood as extreme, even using the most hostile interpretation. In fact, the most controversial thing I wrote to him was that I don’t use Facebook, the very popular social networking service that currently has hundreds of millions of active users around the world.

VG journalists Hans Henrik Torgersen, Morten Hopperstad, Marianne VikÄs, Jarle Brenna and Fridtjof Nygaard also strongly indicated in their article that Breivik and I had mutual acquaintances. This is totally without basis in fact. To my knowledge, none of my personal friends or people with whom I am in regular contact knew him or had ever met him. VG also hinted that ABB may have known my real name or identity. This is, again, quite simply not true.

The overall result of VG’s article, which was packed with omissions, distortions, half-truths, errors and outright lies, was to attach my name to 77 murders. That’s how it would look to the average reader. This was published during the Christmas season, which means that my father, who usually reads VG in the printed paper edition, read these allegations on Christmas Eve.

VG have been struggling with falling revenues and a lower readership for years, as have many newspapers around the Western world. Yet they experienced a big boost after the Breivik massacre. In short: Anders Behring Breivik makes big money for VG. The Norwegian folk singer and guitarist Øystein Sunde has written a satirical song about the mass media called “Smi mens liket er varmt,” or “Strike while the corpse is hot”. That’s an apt description for what certain newspapers are doing in this case.

In its opening paragraph, the VG article states that “While he was working on his gruesome terror plan, Anders Behring Breivik repeatedly had contact with Peder ‘Fjordman’ Jensen.”

First of all: Breivik was never a prominent person, except perhaps in his own rather twisted mind. I had barely noticed him on the Internet before the terror attacks.

Secondly: I am not a psychic or a mind reader. I cannot anticipate what other human beings will do years later when they themselves give no hint of their plans, which ABB did not do. If the police and the security services — who are paid professionals trained to do this sort of job — didn’t anticipate what Breivik was about to do, how can one expect an amateur who had never met him to do so?

As a matter of fact, the police investigation has revealed that ABB used many different email accounts and nicknames and left comments on dozens of very different websites, in addition to being extremely active in online games such as World of Warcraft, where he lived in a virtual reality of heroic warfare. Interestingly enough, that apparently includes the online discussion forums of VG and Aftenposten, by far Norway’s two largest newspapers. For some reason, though, they have been suspiciously quiet about what he actually wrote there.

Aftenposten didn’t just temporarily shut down their online debates following the terror attacks, as many Norwegian papers did at that time, but after the identity of the terrorist became known took the drastic step of deleting their entire discussion forum and removing it from the Internet on a permanent basis. This is such a radical move that it resembles panic. It leaves an outside observer wondering: What exactly are they hiding?

VG didn’t remove their own debate forum, but they haven’t said a word about what Breivik wrote there, either. Perhaps they might as well have written that “While he was working on his gruesome terror plan, Anders Behring Breivik repeatedly posted angry comments on VGDebatt.”

I don’t consider this behavior is acceptable, for a number of reasons. First of all because it is immoral of these newspapers to publish sensitive information about persons who have recently experienced extremely traumatic events, while they themselves won’t even publish some simple discussion comments.

Most importantly, these newspapers and the press in general are always the first to call for “full openness” from everybody else. What happened to practicing what you preach?

I hereby call on editor-in-chief Hilde Haugsgjerd of Aftenposten as well as editor-in-chief Torry Pedersen of VG to follow the example set by the website Document.no and publish all comments Anders Behring Breivik made in the online discussion forums of their own newspapers.

The public has a right to know. If these newspapers refuse to do this, they and the Schibsted media conglomerate, which owns both of them, should tell the public exactly why they refuse to demand from themselves what they demand from everybody else.

For the record: I made an attempt to get comments from both VG and Aftenposten about this on Sunday evening, but I was received no reply before the deadline.

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Hans Erling Jensen
12 years ago

Den 10. august sidste Ă„r, gjorde Eticha.dk opmĂŠrksom pĂ„, at der fandtes et samspil mellem Breiviks “terror-start” og en artikel i norske VG, der pĂ„ en meget truende mĂ„de, lader en muslimsk imam fortĂŠlle om islamisk overtagelse af Norge.

http://eticha.dk/news/breiviks-inspirator-afsloret/

Aisha
Aisha
12 years ago

Fjordman

Jeg forstÄr din beslutning forÄrsaget af det enorme pres, du var under. Men som Erling skriver, er jeg ogsÄ tilbÞjelig til at se kontakt med politiet som et onde i forbindelse med denne sag.

Maria Due
Maria Due
12 years ago
Reply to  Aisha

Hvorfor er du det, Aisha?

Maria Due
Maria Due
12 years ago

Ole Burde Det kan allerede nu have hĂžje omkostninger af mange forskellige slags. For at nĂŠvne et oplagt eksempel lever tidligere ansvarshavende chefredaktĂžr ved Jyllands-Posten Carsten Juste stadig med en dĂždsfatwa, og det kommer han til resten af sit liv. Det mĂ„ vĂŠre svĂŠrt, han er ikke en type, der forsvinder i mĂŠngden. RedaktĂžr Flemming Rose og hans kone mĂ„tte forlade deres hjem i 2006 og gĂ„ under jorden, de bor pĂ„ en hemmelig adresse, og det er der efterhĂ„nden en del, der gĂžr pga. trusler pĂ„ livet. Kurt Westergaards forhold er heller ikke at misunde, han mĂ„tte endda sidste… Read more »

Ole Burde
Ole Burde
12 years ago

Maria Due
Det er FORELØBIGT kun respektabiliteten …. men som sagt vil dette sandsynligvis snart ĂŠndre sig .

Ole Burde
Ole Burde
12 years ago

Det er umuligt at vide hvorlangt udimod en totalitĂŠr enheds-idelogi udviklingen vil kunne gĂ„ . MĂ„ske vil det lykkedes at dĂŠmnisere enhver form for opposition til den politiske korrekthed , eller mĂ„ske vil det lige omvendt vĂŠre selve forsĂžget pĂ„ at dĂŠmonisere folk som Fjordman der gradvist vil fĂ„ venstreflĂžjens godheds-monopol til at slĂ„ revner . I begge tilfĂŠlde mĂ„ man se i Ăžjnene at der sandsynligvis pĂ„ et tidspunkt vil blive en hĂžj personlig pris at betale for mange af dem, som ikke vil holde kĂŠft . SĂ„dan har det stort set altid vĂŠret . Andre steder i verden… Read more »

Maria Due
Maria Due
12 years ago
Reply to  Ole Burde

Ole Burde. Ja, jeg er enig, men du tager fejl, hvis du tror, at det “kun” er respektabiliteten, der er pĂ„ spil. MĂ„ske er det ĂžnsketĂŠnkning, men jeg tror ikke, at advokat Lippestad og den norske regering, hvis forlĂŠngede arm jeg opfatter ham som, vil slippe godt af sted med deres forehavende. De fleste af os elsker historien om David og Goliath, og selv journalister vil have svĂŠrt ved at kapere, hvis Goliath vinder. I den kommende tid kan Danmark efter min mening med stor sandsynlighed se frem til, at nogen Ăžnsker at straffe os for dagens meget omtalte dom,… Read more »

Maria Due
Maria Due
12 years ago

GENGANGERE. I min erindring om danskundervisningen i gymnasiet er Henrik Ibsens drama ”Gengangere” et monster af grĂ„ tristesse, der fylder uforholdsmĂŠssigt meget. Utvivlsom fordi jeg havde en af landets dygtigste lĂŠrere, der senere af politiske grunde betalte en hĂžj pris for at vĂŠre tro mod de holdninger, han indprentede os. Vi skulle sandt for dyden aldrig glemme, at fortidens bedrag kan fĂžre til skĂŠbnesvangre valg i nutiden, og at man skal vare sig for hykleri og hĂ„blĂžse utopier, der prĂŠsenteres som menneskekĂŠrlighed. Her tager vi sĂ„ afsĂŠt i den seneste udvikling i den norske terrorsag og springer tilbage til den… Read more »

Erling
Erling
12 years ago
Reply to  Maria Due

+1

Fjordman
12 years ago

Jeg kommer til Ä gi meget fÄ intervjuer, og sannsynligvis ingen til norske journalister overhodet inntil rettssaken mot Breivik er over. Jeg har gitt noen fÄ intervjuer per epost, men heller ikke mange slike. Jeg har ikke gitt noen overhodet pÄ radio eller TV inntil nÄ. Jeg gir kortere kommentarer per epost og publiserer noen artikler her og der.

Mine essayer stÄr helt fint pÄ egne ben.

Jernhesten
Jernhesten
12 years ago

@Fjordman

Vil du ogsÄ i fremtiden lade journalister interviewe dig?

Frygter du at dine essay i fremtiden bliver associeret med Breivik-sagen?

Maria Due
Maria Due
12 years ago

Fjordman. Jeg har allerede mange gang skrevet det samme som Kirsten Damgaard. Det ville have vĂŠret moralsk forkasteligt, hvis du ikke havde henvendt dig til politiet og lagt alle kort pĂ„ bordet. Det var du nĂždt til bĂ„de for din egen og for samfundets skyld. Vi mĂ„ som udgangspunkt holde fast i, at vi som borgere i et retssamfund anstĂŠndigvis mĂ„ samarbejde med myndighederne, og politiet har jo ogsĂ„ udtalt sig til medierne om, at det har vĂŠret “greit” at samarbejde med dig. Men hvis politiet lĂŠkker, og “den fjerde statsmagt” gĂ„r bananas, hvad gĂžr vi sĂ„? Hvor lĂŠnge er… Read more »

Kirsten Damgaard
12 years ago

KĂŠre Fjordman ,

Intet menneske kan stÄ til ansvar for hvorledes et sindslidende individ
lĂŠser og fortolker ens tekster.I dit tilfĂŠlde har du end ikke mĂždt eller samtalt med
den syge person.

Med venlig hilsen

Kirsten Damgaard ,psykolog

David
David
12 years ago

Du har helt rett Kirsten. Dessverre er ikke det offisielle Norge enig med deg. Fjordman er norges mest demoniserte person.

Fjordman
12 years ago

Ole Burde: De ville nok ha funnet meg pĂ„ ett eller annet tidspunkt, ja. Man kan sammenligne dette med et jordskjelv. Jeg hadde bygget mitt pseudonym sterkt nok til Ă„ tĂ„le et jordskjelv pĂ„ en skala av seks eller syv. Dette holder stort sett i Norge. Breivik-massakren var et jordskjelv pĂ„ bortimot Ă„tte eller ni. Jeg ble derfor jaget vilt av bĂ„de politimyndigheter og sivile myndigheter samt store deler av verdenspressen. Jeg hadde aldri forutsett at en slik situasjon ville oppstĂ„. Det var et spĂžrsmĂ„l om tid fĂžr jeg ville bli funnet. At jeg kontaktet politimyndighetene var minst like mye… Read more »

ExitSweden
ExitSweden
12 years ago

Vem lĂ€cker till media? Är det polisen sjĂ€lva eller advokater eller andra? Jag utgĂ„r i frĂ„n att de som lĂ€cker fĂ„r bra betalt av VG.

Ole Burde
Ole Burde
12 years ago

Fjordman
Den eneste gode grund du muligvis havde til at “gĂ„ til politiet” , var hvis du var FULDSTÆNDIG sikker pĂ„ at de ville finde dig under alle omstĂŠndigheder .I 2012 er det alt alt for sent at klynge sig til naive forestillinger om at have et medansvar for at “hjĂŠlpe myndighederne i deres strĂŠben efter retfĂŠrdighed” . SĂ„ hellere tro pĂ„ julemanden .

Ulla Lauridsen
Ulla Lauridsen
12 years ago

SelvfÞlgelig skulle du gÄ til politiet, Fjordman. I den aktuelle situation skulle de ikke spilde en masse tid pÄ at lede efter et potentielt vidne, og hvis du skjulte dig eller stak af, ville du jo netop, som du siger, se ud som om du havde gjort noget forkert.

Fjordman
12 years ago

Erling: Det er mulig at jeg gjorde en feil ved Ă„ kontakte norsk politi, men jeg var under et helt umenneskelig press i de fĂžrste ukene etter Breiviks massakre og manifest fra en samlet internasjonal presse, norske myndigheter og stort sett alle andre. Jeg mĂ„tte navigere uten kart i et stormfullt farvann der jeg aldri hadde vĂŠrt tidligere. De som snakket med meg sent i juli 2011 mente jeg var overraskende lite stresset, forholdene tatt i betraktning, men det er klart at det var et enormt press. Jeg vurderte det slik at jeg ikke hadde noe Ă„ skjule i forbindelse… Read more »

Marit
12 years ago
Reply to  Fjordman

Fjordman : Det du gjorde var helt riktig !

Mvh
Marit.

Erling
Erling
12 years ago
Reply to  Fjordman

Bevares. Men pointen med foredraget er jo, at uanset at ens samvittighed er ren som nyfalden sne, har man intet at vinde ved at udtale sig til politiet, selv om jeg ikke tror at man som vidne kan pĂ„berĂ„be sig the fifth amendment i dansk eller norsk retspraksis. Det er jo nemt at vĂŠre bagklog men det slog mig som en anelse naivt at du ligefrem rendte politiet pĂ„ dĂžrene. Dit argument om at det ville forhindre spekulationer taler til fordel for din retskaffenhed, men det er Ă„benlyst ikke eet som folk med adgang til topadvokater abonnerer pĂ„. Politifolks job… Read more »

Dog of God
Dog of God
12 years ago
Reply to  Erling

Hvis man er sigtet i en sag, sÄ har man hverken pligt til at udtale sig eller tale sandt, i fald man udtaler sig. Derimod har man som vidne pligt til at tale sandt. Det er ogsÄ strafbart at hindre politiets opklaringsarbejde.

SÄdan ser loven ud i Danmark og uden tvivl ogsÄ i Norge. Fjordman gjorde derfor det eneste rigtige. Alt andet ville bare have givet ham endnu stÞrre problemer end han har i dag.

JensH
JensH
12 years ago

OT

Den her er nĂŠsten for morsom. En Svensk lastbil-chauffĂžr pĂ„ tur i Norge fik en bĂžde pĂ„ 8.000 Norske kroner pĂ„ grund af for dĂ„rlige bremser pĂ„ hans lastbil. Men det Norske politit viste dog ‘nĂ„de’ og halverede lastbilchauffĂžrens bĂžde med den begrundelse, at han jo var Svensker og derfor “skulle der tages mere hensyn til hanst indkomstniveau”. De Svenske medier er vist helt oppe og kĂžre over denne historie:

http://jp.dk/udland/europa/article2657744.ece

Erling
Erling
12 years ago

Her er en tankevÊkkende forelÊsning, som jeg vistnok i sin tid fandt her pÄ sitet. Det er selvfÞlgelig for sent i Fjordmans tilfÊlde.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Det har altid slĂ„et mig, at nĂ„r een med forstand pĂ„ sagerne blev slĂŠbt foran en domstol – i rigsretssagen og diverse sager mod politifolk – sĂ„ viste deres hukommelse sig at vĂŠre stĂŠrkt eroderet. NĂ„r Ninn-Hansen eller Fenger MĂžller, eller politidirektĂžren i 18-maj-sagen, kan fĂ„ sig selv til at sige ‘det erindrer jeg ikke’ tyve gange i trĂŠk, er det nok fordi meget dygtige folk har rĂ„det dem til det.

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