Background
Myhre"s parents were both active on the political left and his father Eldar Myhre is a known trade union chairman at Aker Kværner.
politician Government Director of Personnel
Myhre"s parents were both active on the political left and his father Eldar Myhre is a known trade union chairman at Aker Kværner.
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 (Recreation Vehicle). 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.
Aslak was very active in student demonstrations at the University of Bergen during the 1990s and sat on the university board in 1996.
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 journalist for both the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and Klassekampen.
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.
Foreign 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 and The Washington Post in the aftermath of the 2011 Norway attacks. He was in 2002 convicted to 90 days in prison for failing to report for national military 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 North Atlantic Treaty Organization"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.
He was the party leader of Red Electoral Alliance between 1997 and 2003, and sat in the city council in his home city Stavanger between 1999 and 2003.
