Toralv Øksnevad (13 January 1891 – 31 July 1975) was a Norwegian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held account ...

and

radio personality A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

. He was known as the "voice from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

" during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when listening to foreign radio in Norway was illegal, and from October 1942 implied risk of

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

Personal life

Øksnevad was born in

Høyland Høyland is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The municipality was located at the innermost end of the Gandsfjorden in the western part of the present-day municipality of Sandnes. The muni ...

, a son of teacher Arnt Øksnevad and Kirsten Torine Folkvord, and was a brother of librarian Reidar Øksnevad. His daughter married journalist and film director

Arne Skouen Arne Skouen (18 October 1913 – 24 May 2003) was a Norwegian journalist, author, film director and film producer. Biography Arne Skouen was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. His parents were Peder Nikolai Skouen (1883-1978) and Jenn ...

, and he was a grandfather of composer

Synne Skouen Synne Skouen (born 8 August 1950) is a Norwegian music writer and composer. Biography Skouen was born in Oslo. She studied at the Vienna Academy of Music with Alfred Uhl and Erwin Ratz for composition and Dieter Kaufmann and Friedrich Cerha fo ...

. He died in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

in 1975.

Journalist career

Øksnevad was a journalist for ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' from 1912 to 1920, was press attaché in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

1920–1924, and again journalist for ''Dagbladet'' 1924–1927. He was editor-in-chief for the regional newspaper '' Romsdalsposten'' 1927–1933. He started working for the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

(NRK) in 1933, and became the leader for the news department in 1938. In April 1940 he fled from

occupied Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the World War II, Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the Norwegian Campaign, German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi G ...

to neutral Sweden, and traveled to London in August 1940, to negotiate with

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. In London he participated in the BBC's broadcasting in the Norwegian language until 1945. Øksnevad was the ''program director'' of NRK-in-exile, except for brief periods. Before Øksnevad travelled from Sweden to London, Aake Anker Ording was acting director, and from July to October 1941 Øksnevad visited his family in the United States, during which time Olav Rytter was acting director. Øksnevad's regular Sunday evening speeches had a significant influence on the Norwegian war resistance. The book ''Det lå i luften'' from 1946 contains about 160 of his London radio speeches. Øksnevad cooperated very closely with Prime Minister-in-exile

Johan Nygaardsvold Johan Nygaardsvold (; 6 September 1879 – 13 March 1952) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party who served as the prime minister of Norway from 1935 to 1945. From June 1940 until May 1945, he oversaw the Norwegian Government-in-exile f ...

, and wrote his speeches on occasions. He was on less good terms with Minister of Foreign Affairs

Halvdan Koht Halvdan Koht (7 July 1873 – 12 December 1965) was a Norwegian historian and politician representing the Labour Party. Born in the north of Norway to a fairly distinguished family, he soon became interested in politics and history. Sta ...

. From 1945 he worked for NRK in

, as a program editor, and from 1946 to 1961 as editor of foreign affairs.

Political career

Øksnevad was chairman for the

Young Liberals of Norway Young Liberals of Norway () (NUV) is the youth league of the Norway, Norwegian political party Venstre (Norway), Venstre. Young Liberals was founded on 27 January 1909, with Anders Kirkhusmo as the first leader. The current president is Sondre Han ...

from 1914 to 1916, and chairman for the Oslo section of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

from 1924 to 1927. He was a deputy representative to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

for two periods, both periods for the Liberal Party: during 1931–1933, from the constituency

Market towns of Møre og Romsdal county The Market towns of Møre og Romsdal county () was an electoral district for parliamentary elections in Norway. It comprised the market towns () of Kristiansund, Molde and Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county. The district was established ahead of ...

, and 1954–1957 from Oslo. In the 1949 parliamentary election he also headed the party's ballot, from Oslo, but was not elected. He was elected member of

city council from 1951 to 1959, and deputy mayor from 1956 to 1957.

Books

*''Det lå i luften'' (1946) *''Norges fiskerigrense'' (1952) *''Joh. Ludw. Mowinckel'' (1963)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oeksnevad, Toralv 1891 births 1975 deaths People from Sandnes NRK people Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian non-fiction writers Norwegian people of World War II Norwegian radio journalists Deputy members of the Storting Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Møre og Romsdal politicians Politicians from Oslo