Marie Simonsen

Marie Heiberg Simonsen (born 1 June 1962) is a Norwegian journalist who since 2003 has been political editor in ''Dagbladet''. She has previously worked for ''Dagens Næringsliv'' and '' VG''.

Early life, education and career

Simonsen was born in BodøOlav Garvik
Marie Heiberg Simonsen
''Store norske leksikon''. Retrieved 6 March 2014 and grew up on the west side of Oslo. Her father is the lawyer and Conservative politician Gustav Heiberg Simonsen.Bjarne Riiser Gundersen (17 April 2009)
Overdommeren
'' Morgenbladet''. Retrieved 6 March 2014

She studied law, literature and political science at the University of Oslo 1983–1985. She started working as a journalist in ''Dagens Næringsliv'' in 1985 after having been recruited by Kåre Valebrokk. She headed the feature department for a while and was the paper's correspondent in London 1994–1997. She worked for ''VG'' 1997–2003 where she became head of the newspaper's commentary section. She has also held causeries in NRK radio. She participated in founding the Norwegian Foundation for Investigative Journalism (SKUP) in 1990.

Views

Simonsen has described her general political positions as in accordance with the liberal tradition of ''Dagbladet''. She does not have any fixed preference for a particular political party. She has named Gro Harlem Brundtland as a role model.

A feminist, she favours affirmative action for women and opposes cash-for-care benefits for the parents of toddlers which she believes hinders gender equality and integration of immigrant women and their children. Simonsen has expressed concern that women who are public figures are subject to more threats and harassment both online and in real life than men and that this causes women to stay away from public debate. Having experienced much internet harassment as well as real life threats, Simonsen has voiced concern that women in public life experience more and graver cyberbullying and threats than men, and that this may cause many women to stay out of public debate. She opposes the Norwegian monarchy and the Norwegian state church.

In 2007, Simonsen commented on the paramedics incident in Oslo 2007 and wrote that the paramedics that refused aid to Ali Farah would not have behaved in the same way if Farah had been the ethnic Norwegian Hydro CEO Eivind Reiten. She further wrote: "This week, we were forced to see what we didn't want to see. It was the ugly and unmerciful effect of racism". One of the paramedics sued ''Dagbladet'' for their coverage of the incident and in 2014, the Supreme Court of Norway ordered ''Dagbladet'' to pay Erik Schjenken, one of the two paramedics, 200,000 Norwegian kroner in compensation for false allegations of racism, based on the commentary of Simonsen and two other writers for the paper. ''Dagbladet'' and other media leaders and journalists have called the ruling a threat to free journalism.Thorstein Hvattum (6 March 2014
Et varselskudd mot ytringsfriheten
''Aftenposten''. Retrieved 15 March 2014

Books

*Marie Simonsen and Ingunn Yssen (2010): ''Bråk! Den store likestillingssvindelen''. Aschehoug Forlag.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonsen, Marie
1962 births
Living people
Norwegian newspaper journalists
Norwegian newspaper reporters and correspondents
Norwegian expatriates in England
Norwegian political writers
Norwegian women non-fiction writers
21st-century Norwegian women writers
University of Oslo alumni
People from Bodø