Åke Helge Ortmark (14 May 1929 – 18 October 2018) was a Swedish journalist, author and radio and television presenter. During a long career he worked for both television and radio; he also authored several books.

Early life

Ortmark was born in Stockholm, and grew up in Ålsten. During the early 1950s he studied economics at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

in the United States. Ortmark earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

in Business and Economics at

Handelshögskolan The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE; sv, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, HHS) is a private university, private business school located in city district Vasastan, Stockholm, Vasastaden in the central part of Stockholm, Sweden. SSE offers B ...

in Stockholm in 1954.

Career

Ortmark started working at

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

in 1958. He was for some time a newsreader for ''

Aktuellt ''Aktuellt'' (literally "current; topical" or "actual") is a Swedish nightly news programme produced by Sveriges Television (SVT) and broadcast on its second channel, SVT2 in Sweden. It was first broadcast on 2 September 1958. With the start of T ...

'' which was broadcast on

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

. Together with Herbert Söderström, Ortmark pioneered the technique named "Skjutjärnsjournalistik" (hard-hitting journalism) in Swedish, on Sveriges Radio in 1962. As part of "De tre O:na", he became known for using the technique alongside Lars Orup and Gustaf Olivecrona in live broadcast on Sveriges Television in 1966 while interviewing Prime Minister

Tage Erlander Tage Fritjof Erlander (; 13 June 1901 – 21 June 1985) was a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and led the government for an uninterrupted tenur ...

. Ortmark became the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper ''

Veckans Affärer ''Veckans Affärer'' (, lit. "the week's business") was a Swedish business magazine published on a weekly basis in Stockholm, dealing in all business-related matters both within and outside Sweden. It was in circulation between 1965 and 2019. H ...

'' between 1974 and 1976. In 1997 he was the television presenter for his own interview show ''O som i Ortmark'' which was broadcast on TV8 until 2006, by which time Ortmark decided to leave to work for

Axess TV Axess TV is a Swedish television channel belonging to the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. It is mainly devoted to cultural and science programmes. The Ax:son Johnson Foundation applied for a license to broadcast in the Swedish dig ...

. Ortmark received the television award

Kristallen Kristallen (meaning The Crystal) is the official Swedish television award, administered by the foundation . It was created in 2005 by television producers SVT, TV3, TV4, Kanal 5 and UR. The trophy The award trophy, created by Mårten Cla ...

in 2005 in the category Stiftelsens hederspris (the Foundation's Honour Award) for his work in TV and dedication for news and discussions. On 25 June 2006, Ortmark took part in ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' (''Summer on P1'') is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series ...

'' talking about his career and life. In 2008, he was member of Humanisternas (the humanists) council. In 2013, Ortmark published his memoirs called ''Makten och lögnen – ett liv i televisionens Sverige'' which told about his career in journalism.

Personal life

Åke Ortmark in 1961 married Sinikka Tenhunen. After his divorce, he married Annika Roth in 1974. Ortmark was the father of three children. Ortmark had a black belt in

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

. Ortmark died on 18 October 2018 after a short time of illness at the age of 89.

Bibliography

*1963 – ''Sveket mot konsumenterna'' *1967 – ''Maktspelet i Sverige'' *1969 – ''De okända makthavarna'' *1971 – ''Maktens redskap'', *1972 – ''Den inre cirkeln'', *1977 – ''Lamco!'', *1981 – ''Skuld och makt'', *1985 – ''Maktens människor'', *1996 – ''Ja-sägarna'', *2013 – ''Makten och lögnen: ett liv i televisionens Sverige'',

Filmography

*1973 – ''Makt på spel'' (TV series)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortmark, Åke 1929 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Swedish writers Stockholm School of Economics alumni Swedish journalists Swedish memoirists Swedish newspaper editors Swedish radio presenters Swedish television hosts University of California alumni Writers from Stockholm