Per Edgar Kokkvold (born 26 March 1946) is a Norwegian journalist, former editor and secretary-general of the

Norwegian Press Association The Norwegian Press Association (; NP) is a Norwegian association for organizations and companies of the news media. History The Norwegian Press Association was established in 1910 for people with journalism as their main profession. its member ...

, and current chair of the Norwegian Broadcasting Council. Kokkvold was born in

Røros Municipality ( Norwegian) or is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Røros. Some of the villages in Røros include Brekken, Glåmos, Feragen, Galåa, and Hitterdalen. The municip ...

. He spent most of his career in ''

Arbeiderbladet is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. Eirik Hoff Lys ...

'', where he was foreign news commentator from 1973 to 1984, foreign news editor from 1984 to 1991 and editor (not editor-in-chief) from 1991 to 1996. He was the secretary-general of the Norwegian Press Association from 1996, until succeeded by

Kjersti Løken Stavrum Kjersti Løken Stavrum (born 1 March 1969) is a Norwegian journalist and editor. Since April 2013, she has been Secretary General of the Norwegian Press Association. Born in Sarpsborg in south-eastern Norway, Stavrum is a graduate in political s ...

in 2013. He was in 2014 elected to chair the Norwegian Broadcasting Council for the period 2014 to 2017. In 2006, controversy arose when Kokkvold advocated publishment of the

Muhammad cartoons The Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, ) began after the Danish newspaper published twelve editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005 depicting Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in what it said was a response to the deb ...

. He received several death threats related to the controversy and needed police protection for long periods. In 2013 he was awarded the

Fritt Ord Honorary Award Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation (''Stiftelsen Fritt Ord''). Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award () and the Fritt Ord Honorary Award (). ...

for his fight for

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

and his commentary on

media ethics Media ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet. The field covers many varied and highly contro ...

and journalistic practice.Kjersti Nipen (14 May, 2013)
Fritt Ords Honnør til Kokkvold og Øy
''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'', retrieved 16 June, 2013 He was awarded the inaugural

Gunnar Sønsteby Gunnar Fridtjof Thurmann Sønsteby DSO ( 1918 – 10 May 2012) was a member of the Norwegian resistance movement during the German occupation of Norway in World War II. Known by the nickname "Kjakan" ("The Chin") and as "Agent No. 24", ...

memorial prize together with

Kristin Solberg Kristin Solberg (born 1982) is a Norwegian journalist and author. She is the Middle East correspondent for NRK and presently based in Beirut. Previously she covered the Middle East and South Asia for''Aftenposten''. Solberg has a bachelor's degre ...

in 2015. Kokkvold resides in

Drøbak Drøbak is a town and the centre of the municipality of Frogn, in Akershus county, Norway. The city is located along the Oslofjord, and has 13,409 inhabitants. History Drøbak and Frogn was established as a parish on its own through a royal d ...

, Norway.

References

1946 births Living people Norwegian journalists People from Røros People from Frogn {{Norway-journalist-stub