Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik asks to do international TV interview from prison

MALMO, Sweden — Norwegian confessed mass murderer Anders Breivik has asked to do an interview with an international television station before his trial begins in April.

Odd Groen, one of Breivik’s lawyers, said Breivik had made a formal request to the governor at Ila prison to be allowed to receive the channel in the station.

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“He wants to reach a wider audience than just in Norway,” he told GlobalPost on Tuesday. “He wants to do it as soon as possible.”

The 32-year-old right-wing extremist killed 77 people in a gun and bomb rampage this past July, an attack he has claimed was “necessary” to wake Norwegians up to the threat posed by Muslim immigration.

Advokatfirmaet Lippestad, Mr. Groen’s firm, has received interview requests from several Norwegian and international media organizations since the ban on Breivik receiving visitors ended in December.

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But Breivik has so far expressed interest in an interview with only one broadcaster, although he has yet to discuss terms of the interview with the organization.

Mr. Groen declined to name the organization, saying only that it “might be” the BBC, and wasn’t CNN.

Norway’s national channel, NRK, said today that it did not believe there was an ethical case for carrying out such an interview.

“We believe that the burden of the survivors and the bereaved is so large that such an interview could never be justified, whatever the potential news value,” Per Arne Kalbakken, the channel’s director told Norway’s Verdens Gang newspaper.

Breivik’s decision to do an interview went against the advice of his lawyer Geir Lippestad, who warned him "it is not wise to speak out."

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