Ikke Et Ord Om Politik
Ikke Et Ord Om Politik

Journalist Janni Pedersen

November 1, 2024

AI Summary

5 min read

When the Newsroom Becomes the Story

Journalist Janni Pedersen was sitting alone in the TV2 studio on December 29, 2010, covering the slow news period between Christmas and New Year, when a colleague at the Danish intelligence service (PET) messaged her: a press conference was coming. A minute later, she opened the press release. Four men—Swedish citizens with Tunisian and Moroccan backgrounds—had been on their way to Denmark, armed with automatic weapons and strips, intending to enter the Jyllands-Posten Politiken building and kill as many people as possible.

The target was the building where her husband, Kim, worked as a political journalist. Their 12-year-old daughter, Nanna, was with her at the studio that day.

The Journalist as Sole Expert

What made the situation unusual was not just the personal stakes. Pedersen had covered terrorism cases since the Glostrup case in 2005, attended years of PET briefings, and carried classified background knowledge she could not report unless sources confirmed it. When the breaking news hit, she was the only person in the studio with deep expertise on the subject—and she could not leave the screen.

"I wanted to interview myself," she says. "Sometimes when I sit and interview people, I think: it would be nice to have someone like me, whom I could interview."

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Introducing Janni Pedersen and the December 29, 2010 terror plot** - Setting the scene: Janni was on a routine news shift between Christmas and New Year, her husband worked at Jyllands-Posten, and a press conference revealed a foiled terror attack on the media house.
  • 2 (02:53) **Inside the breaking news studio** - Janni describes the mechanics of being the sole anchor during a major breaking story, with no teleprompter and no one to relieve her for hours.
  • 3 (08:29) **The daughter’s realization** - Janni’s 12-year-old daughter Nanna was with her at work and read the press release in the car.
  • 4 (14:33) **Dealing with emotion under pressure: action vs. feeling** - Janni describes her family’s project-oriented coping style and contrasts it with the delayed emotional reaction.
  • 5 (20:11) **Concrete threats and personal safety** - Janni recounts two specific incidents where she was directly threatened.
  • 6 (22:43) **The aftermath and the nature of terror** - Janni reflects on how the plot was foiled and the psychological impact on her husband and colleagues.
  • 7 (25:24) **The Mohammed drawings and freedom of speech** - Janni discusses the internal media debate after the Charlie Hebdo reprint and her own position on freedom of expression.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

'Jamen, mor, det er jo far, de vil slå ihjel,' lød det fra Janni Pedersens datter. Og først da gik alvoren op for den erfarne TV 2-journalist.

Morten Messerschmidt mødes med Janni Pedersen til en åbenhjertig samtale om en af de mest intense dage i hendes liv. Janni Pedersen fortæller om den 29. december 2010, hvor nyheden om en terrortrussel mod mandens arbejdsplads tikkede ind og pludselig fik hendes professionelle verden til at kollidere med hendes private verden.

Hør også om skiftet til Go' Aften Live, det famøse 'jeg er ikke sur'-interview med Pia Kjærsgaard - og ikke mindst om dengang, hvor Janni Pedersen slog en blotter i hovedet.
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