From 1974 to 2010, he was the chief publisher of
Aschehoug, Norway's second largest publishing house,[2] which is owned by the Nygaard family. When he took this job he followed the footsteps of his father Mads Wiel Nygaard and grandfather
William Martin Nygaard who was leading the company in earlier years,[3] and the tradition continues since he left the job to his son, Mads Nygaard.[4] William Nygaard was chairman of the
Norwegian Publishers Association from 1987 to 1990.[5] From 2010 to 2014, he was employed as a director of
NRK (the state owned TV of Norway).[6]
Assassination attempt
On 12 April 1989, Aschehoug and William Nygaard were responsible for publishing the Norwegian edition of
Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.[7] This was two months after
Ayatollah Khomeini issued the following
fatwa against Salman Rushdie and his publishers:
I inform all zealous Muslims of the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses — which has been compiled, printed and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an — and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they may be found, so that no one else will dare to insult the Muslim sanctities. God Willing, whoever is killed on this path is a martyr.[8]
Owing to the fatwa, direct threats were made against William Nygaard and translator
Kari Risvik, and in the resulting
controversy, Nygaard was given police protection for a period.
On the morning of 11 October 1993, Nygaard was shot three times outside his home in
Dagaliveien in
Oslo.[9] Most people — including Nygaard[10] — link the incident to the fatwa. After several months of hospitalization, mostly at
Sunnaas Hospital, Nygaard slowly recovered.[10] In early October 2018, almost a quarter century after the
attempted assassination, charges were made against the alleged perpetrators. Their names and nationalities were not publicized at the time.[11] In November 2021 the two were identified as the
Lebanese man Khaled Moussawi and an unnamed former Iranian diplomat.[12]
^Didriksen, Nina; Fenne, Marit (10 June 2010).
"William Nygaard ny styreleder i NRK" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 10 May 2011.