Aslak Sira Myhre (born 28 May 1973 in

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

) is a Norwegian culture administrator. Since 2014 he is director of the National Library of Norway. Myhre has been a leftwing politician, and was for a period leader of the former party Red Electoral Alliance (RV). In the local election in Oslo in 2015 he was listed for Red, the party succeeding Red Electoral Alliance since 2007, however not on top, and he did not get a seat. Myhre's parents were both active on the political left and his father Eldar Myhre is a known trade union chairman at

Aker Kværner Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

. Aslak was very active in student demonstrations at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

during the 1990s and sat on the university board in 1996. He was the party leader of Red Electoral Alliance between 1997 and 2003, and sat in the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

in his home city

between 1999 and 2003. He was the top candidate for

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

for

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

in the 1997 election and

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

in the 2001 election, but his party failed to win any seats. Leaving national politics, he became an executive of !Les, an association to stimulate children and youth to read more. Myhre has also worked as a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

journalist for both the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation 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 ...

and ''

Klassekampen (Lit. translation: ''"The Class Struggle"'') is a Norwegian daily newspaper in print and online. Its tagline is "The daily newspaper of the Left". The paper's net circulation was 33,265 in 2022, and it has around 111,000 daily readers on paper ...

''. In 2006 he started as director for the House of Literature in Oslo. The House of Literature opened in 2007, it is Europes largest and has more than 250.000 visitors annually. In 2014 he was appointed director of the National Library. For his work with !les and The House of Literature, Myhre in 2008 received "Eckbos legaters Kulturpris". Myhre has published several books, and has published articles in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and ''

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'' in the aftermath of the

2011 Norway attacks The 2011 Norway attacks, also called 22 July () or 22/7 in Norway, were two domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attacks by far-right politics, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik against the politics of Norway, government, the civil ...

.Myhre, Aslak Sira, ''The Guardian'' (24 July 2011)
Norway attacks: Norway's tragedy must shake Europe into acting on extremism
/ref>Myhre, Aslak Sira, ''The Guardian'' (30 November 2011)
Anders Breivik's hatred does not come from a delusional mind
/ref> He is married to current editor-in-chief of '' Samtiden'', Cathrine Sandnes.

Controversy

He was in 2002 convicted to 90 days in prison for failing to report for national

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

service. On appeal in 2003 his sentence was made suspended on probation. His case was controversial since Myhre had only political objection to serve national service due to Norwegian participation in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

's out of area involvement and his refusal to classify himself as having objections to serve military national service. His objections were neither religious, moral nor ethical, which are the legal requirements for being granted civilian national service under Norwegian National Service laws.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myhre, Aslak Sira 1973 births Living people Red Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Stavanger Leaders of political parties in Norway University of Bergen alumni Directors of government agencies of Norway