Background
Born in Trondheim, Selbekk grew up in Meråker in Nord-Trøndelag. His mother grew up in East Germany, until the family fled and she was sent to Trondheim as a nine-year old.
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Vebjorn Selbekk
Edit Profilejournalist contributing editor
Education
He has attended Livets Ord"s Bible school in Uppsala, Sweden, and was for many years an important figure of the Norwegian charismatic free church movement.
Career
Selbekk became widely known in Norway when he in 2006 was one of the first—the first in Norway—to reprint a facsimile of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, as editor of the conservative Christian newspaper Magazinet (now Dagen). Selbekk has a candidate.mag. Selbekk started his career as a journalist for the local paper Stjørdalens Blad in the 1980s.
In 1989 he became chief editor of the Oslo-based conservative Christian newspaper Magazinet, editing the paper until it merged with the older Bergen-based Christian newspaper Dagen in 2008, taking the name DagenMagazinet.
He was societal editor of DagenMagazinet until 2010, when he became chief editor of the paper. Since 2011 the newspaper has been published under the name Dagen.
Selbekk came under global media attention after 9 January 2006, when as chief editor of Magazinet he reprinted facsimiles of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons as part of a news story about debate around the publication of the cartoons in Denmark. Selbekk himself received numerous death threats, and was forced to go into hiding with body guards and police protection.
He released the book Truet av islamister later the year, which chronicled the events, and criticized Norwegian authorities" handling of the case.
The publication of the cartoons had sparked fierce debate in Norway as well, and after the Norwegian embassy in Syria was set on fire, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said that Selbekk had a "co-responsibility" for the attacks. After pressure from the Norwegian government, Selbekk agreed to publicly apologize "if he had hurt someone"s feelings", although he later regretted the decision which he says was taken under immense pressure. Selbekk has strongly criticized what he has described as being singled out as a "public enemy", making him a "legitimate target" amid death threats against himself and his family.
He believes that as long as there is news relevance, images should be published regardless if someone could be offended or disagree with lieutenant
Selbekk has written several books:
2001: Jødehat på norsk. ("Norwegian Jew-hatred")
2006: Truet av islamister ("Threatened by Islamists"), about the events surrounding the publication of the Muhammad caricatures.
2007: T.B. Barratt - forfulgt og etterfulgt. ("Tuberculosis Barratt - persecuted and followed")
2013: Korset og Davidsstjernen - Norge jødene og Israel fra 1814 til idag ("The Cross and the Star of David - Norway, the Jews and Israel from 1814 until today").
