Håkon Høydal

Håkon F. Høydal is a feature journalist working for the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG). Since 2013 he has mainly focused on issues concerning online crime, especially child abuse, often in collaboration with his colleague Einar Otto Stangvik and Natalie R. Hansen. In 2015 they published the three part documentary ‘The Downloaders‘, where they identified  men both from Norway and the rest of the world who downloaded child abuse material. The documentary received the presitigous ONA Award in USA, as well as the first Data-Skup award in Norway. In 2017 they uncovered a police operation on the darknet against the largest child abuse forum, a story that was quoted around the world. Høydal has also covered the drug war in the Philippines, forced marriages of Norwegian girls in Iraq, and the new rise of psychedelics.

Håkon Høydal was selected for the 2016 European Press Prize shortlist with ’The Downloaders’