William Nygaard

William Nygaard
William Nygaard in 2009.
Born	(1943-03-16) 16 March 1943 Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Education	Degree in economics
Occupation	Chief publisher (CEO) of Aschehoug publishing house
Children	2

William Nygaard (born 16 March 1943) is the retired head of the Norwegian publishing company Aschehoug. He is chairman of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Business career

From 1974 to 2010 he was the chief publisher (CEO) of Aschehoug, Norway's second largest publishing house,^[1] which is owned by the Nygaard family. When he took this job he followed the footsteps of his father Mads Wiel Nygaard and grandfather William Martin Nygaard who was leading the company in earlier years,^[2] and the tradition continues since he left the job to his son, Mads Nygaard.^[3] William Nygaard was chairman of the Norwegian Publishers Association from 1987 to 1990.^[4]

Assassination attempt

On 12 April 1989 Aschehoug and William Nygaard were responsible for publishing the Norwegian edition of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.^[5] This was two months after Ayatollah Khomeini issued the following fatwa against Salman Rushdie and his publishers:

I inform all zealous Muslims of the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses — which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an — and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they may be found, so that no one else will dare to insult the Muslim sanctities. God Willing, whoever is killed on this path is a martyr.^[6]

Owing to the fatwa, direct threats were made against William Nygaard and translator Kari Risvik, and in the resulting controversy, Nygaard was given police protection for a period.

On the morning of 11 October 1993, Nygaard was shot three times outside his home in Dagaliveien in Oslo.^[7] Although the crime has never been solved, most people — including Nygaard^[8] — link the incident to the fatwa. After several months of hospitalization, most of the time at Sunnaas Hospital, Nygaard slowly recovered.^[8]

Other positions

Both before and after the attack, William Nygaard has been an outspoken defender of free speech, and is a board member of the Norwegian division of International PEN.^[9] In 1994 he was awarded the Fritt Ord Award.^[10] He is a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature.^[11]

He has been a member of the board of Norway's National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.^[12] In 2010 he was elected chairman of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.^[13]

He has two children.^[14]

References

1. ↑ Norwegian Official Report on plurality in media, NOU 1995:3
2. ↑ The history of Aschehoug publishing house (in Norwegian)
3. ↑ Newspaper article in DN (in Norwegian)
4. ↑ Newspaper article from Aftenposten (in Norwegian)
5. ↑ A timeline of the events of the Satanic Verses controversy (in Norwegian)
6. ↑ Notes for Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses, including the text of the fatwa
7. ↑ Interview with Helga Waagaard who was first to find Nygaard and call for an ambulance (in Norwegian) Archived October 26, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
8. 1 2 Interview with William Nygaard 10 years after the assassination attempt (in Norwegian) Archived November 26, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
9. ↑ Listing of the board of the Norwegian PEN
10. ↑ Henriksen, Petter, ed. (2007). "Fritt Ords pris". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 22 May 2010. 
11. ↑ "Det Norske Akademi for Sprog og Litteratur" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature. Retrieved 25 April 2009. 
12. ↑ Listing of the board of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
13. ↑ Didriksen, Nina; Fenne, Marit (10 June 2010). "William Nygaard ny styreleder i NRK" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 10 May 2011. 
14. ↑ A page about a video interview with Nygaard (in Norwegian)