Cecilia Uddén (born 28 October 1960) is a Swedish journalist, radio host and foreign reporter for

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

. Uddén has worked as a radio foreign correspondent to the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

since 1993.

Early life

Cecilia Uddén was born in

Hägersten Hägersten (''Heronstone'') is an Urban districts of Sweden, urban district of Stockholm. It is located in the borough of Hägersten-Liljeholmen, which was formed 1 January 2007 by merging the former boroughs of Hägersten and Liljeholmen. Referen ...

, Stockholm, the oldest daughter of Per Olov Edvin Uddén and Sigrid Chatarina Öhlén-Johannsen. During her childhood, her family also spent time in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

, Thailand. Uddén attended Norra Latins Gymnasium in Stockholm and studied philosophy at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

. She also studied journalism at Skurups folkhögskola in

Skurup Skurup is a locality and the seat of Skurup Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to ...

, Sweden. Uddén has two children with ex-husband Otto Manheimer, a cultural journalist and translator. She is now in a relationship with artist Elisabeth Ohlson.

Career

In 1988, Uddén started working in

's culture department. Between 1993 and 1998, she was a foreign correspondent to the Middle East and was based in Cairo and

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Between 1998 and 2003, she was the foreign correspondent to Washington for Sveriges Radio. In 2004, she began to host the radio show ''Konflikt'' which was broadcast between 2004 and 2005. She worked as a foreign correspondent based in Amman from 2006 and 2011. After the Syrian authorities withdrew permission for her to work as a journalist, stating that she had conveyed "false information", Uddén left Syria in December 2016. SR rejected the claims made against Uddén.

Criticism

During the 2004 American presidential election, Uddén was criticised for making an evaluative statement about one of the candidates on Sveriges Radio. The comment was seen as a breach of impartiality, leading to the suspension of Uddén from election coverage. Uddén was criticized in December 2011, by Peter Wolodarski in ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'' after she posed for a photo with two

salafist The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retur ...

s she had interviewed.

Awards

*1997: ''Stora Journalistpriset'' *2001: ''Sveriges Radios språkpris'' *2003: ''Jolopriset'' *2005: ''Torgny Segerstedts frihetspenna'' *2006: ''Vilhelm Moberg-priset'' *2010: ''Cordelia Edvardsonpriset'' *2011: ''Stora Journalistpriset''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uddén, Cecilia 1960 births Living people 21st-century Swedish journalists Swedish radio personalities Swedish women radio presenters Swedish radio presenters Journalists from Stockholm Stockholm University alumni 20th-century Swedish women writers 20th-century Swedish journalists 20th-century Swedish women journalists 21st-century Swedish women journalists