Åsa Linderborg

Åsa Linderborg
Åsa Linderborg in September 2018.
Born(1968-05-20)20 May 1968
Västerås, Sweden
Occupationwriter, columnist, historian
LanguageSwedish
NationalitySwedish

Åsa Natacha Linderborg (née Andersson, born 20 May 1968) is a Swedish writer, columnist and historian . She writes regularly for Aftonbladet, where she works as chief cultural editor.

Åsa Linderborg was born in the city of Västerås, where she also grew up. Her father worked as a metalworker and her mother, Tanja Linderborg, is a former politician and Member of Parliament for the Left Party. Åsa Linderborg herself became a member of the Left Party – Communists in 1980 and the following year of its youth wing, the Communist Youth. In 1987, she became an ombudsman for the Communist Youth in Mälardalen.[1] Linderborg graduated with a Ph.D. in history from Uppsala University in 2001 with the dissertation Socialdemokraterna skriver historia: Historieskrivning som ideologisk maktresurs ("Social Democrats Write History: History Writing Used as an Ideological Power Resource"), about the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Mig äger ingen (Nobody Owns Me), was released. The book received good reviews and was nominated for the August Prize in the category best Swedish-language novel of the year. The book was later the basis for a film of the same name starring Mikael Persbrandt.

On 27 March 2008, Linderborg was presented as the new deputy cultural editor of Aftonbladet, with Karin Magnusson becoming the chief cultural editor. In 2009 Linderborg replaced Magnusson as chief cultural editor. Shortly after she moved into this position, the Aftonbladet-Israel controversy erupted due to an article published in Aftonbladet's culture pages on alleged Israeli organ harvesting from Palestinians. After a wave of criticism in 2018–2019 and dismissals in the Press Opinion Council, Linderborg resigned in July 2019 from her position as cultural director to become a senior reporter at the newspaper.[2][3]

In 2017, accusations of misconduct were published under her responsibility against the theatre director Benny Fredriksson,[4] forcing him to resign, and apparently leading to his suicide three months later.

Criticism

During her tenure as cultural director of Aftonbladet, Åsa Linderborg faced criticism over the paper’s reporting on Stockholm City Theatre director Benny Fredriksson; Aftonbladet was later reprimanded by the Swedish Press Opinion Council (PON) for its coverage of the case, which sparked a broader debate about media ethics.[5][6] Linderborg later reflected on the episode and #MeToo-era journalism in interviews and in her book Året med 13 månader (The Year with 13 Months).[7]

In 2019, Aftonbladet Kultur was also censured by PON for a column alleging that Russia scholar Martin Kragh had cooperated with British intelligence; the Council held that the publication caused “unjustified publicity damage.”[8][9]

Linderborg took part in the Institute for Media Studies’ work examining Swedish media ethics after #MeToo, including analyses by Torbjörn von Krogh of Aftonbladet’s Fredriksson coverage presented in June 2020.[10]

Awards

  • 2007 – ABF:s litteraturpris
  • 2007 – BMF-plaketten
  • 2007 – Lundequistska bokhandelns litteraturpris
  • 2008 – Ivar Lo-Johanssons personliga pris

References

  1. ^ Elf Karlén, Moa (2003). Hundra år av gemenskap - i kamp för socialism och människovärde [One hundred years of being together - in the struggle for socialism and human dignity] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Nixon. ISBN 91-972019-8-7.
  2. ^ Johanna Rapp (11 July 2019). "Åsa Linderborg becomes a senior reporter at Aftonbladet". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Åsa Linderborg resigns as head of culture at Aftonbladet". SVT Nyheter. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  4. ^ Christine Lemke-Matwey: Der Fall Fredriksson. Chronologie eines Versagens. In: Die Zeit vom 26. Juli 2018, S. 36–37
  5. ^ “Aftonbladet fälls för publicering om Stadsteaterns förre chef,” Aftonbladet, 11 March 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/xRGeJG/aftonbladet-falls-for-publicering-om-stadsteaterns-forre-chef
  6. ^ Weyler, Jonas; Linderborg, Åsa, “Hur fel får en kulturchef ha?” (debate and response on the PON ruling), Aftonbladet Kultur, 4 April 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/a/jd0Awz/hur-fel-far-en-kulturchef-ha
  7. ^ Daun, Christian, “’Jag blev som alla andra, jag drogs med’,” Svenska Dagbladet, 18 July 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.svd.se/a/kJ2lMv/jag-blev-som-alla-andra-jag-drogs-med
  8. ^ “Aftonbladet fälls för Martin Kragh-publicering,” SVT Nyheter, 2 December 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.svt.se/kultur/aftonbladet-falls-for-martin-kragh-publicering
  9. ^ Nesser, Johannes, “Aftonbladet fälls för Kragh-publiceringar,” Journalisten, 2 December 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.journalisten.se/nyheter/aftonbladet-falls-kragh-publiceringar/
  10. ^ von Krogh, Torbjörn; Lidbom, Olle; Rosenvinge, Therese; Truedson, Lars (eds.), Uthängd! Om medieetik efter #metoo (Institute for Media Studies, 2020). Overview and discussion in: “Lär av Norge: Utred svenska uthängningar under metoo,” Dagens Nyheter, 20 June 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2025. https://www.dn.se/debatt/lar-av-norge-utred-svenska-uthangningar-under-metoo/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.