STOCKHOLM - The lawsuit between Marie Fredriksson and Expressen has taken a sudden turn. Just days before the case was to go to trial, Expressen suddenly claims they where right after all – that their story was factual – even though they had issued an apology earlier.
  According to Marie’s lawyer, Leif Silbersky, this means that the court case will need to be postponed to a later date.

  Expressen published an article in the spring that Marie had an additional tumor. Marie and her lawyer denied this and Expressen later apologized. This wasn’t enough for Marie, who has sued Expressen for a half-million kronor ($62,000).

  Marie has also, via her attorneys, filed a report to the police about her hospital breaking their professional secrecy about her condition. “The information given to Expressen is of the nature that it can only come from someone employed at the hospital, and with access to Marie’s files,” Silbersky states. Karolinska sjukhuset, the hospital in question, welcomes the report. “Our clients’ integrity is one of our corner stones,” Margareta Hamark, information manager of the hospital, says to Journalisten.

  “Criz” contributed to this article.

• TV4.se article (in Swedish)
• Journalisten, article 1 (In Swedish)
• Journalisten, article 2 (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Aftonbladet has published a story about Marie who’s now working on new songs, as we told earlier this week. “She writes and records songs whenever she’s able to,” says manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet. “She works when she feels like it. Sometimes it’s more intensive, sometimes less. Just like it always goes.”

  “She’s been talking about the album a long time. I suppose she’s now started to work on it,” says Per. “She has a studio at home, so she can record an album in her attic if she wants to.”

  “We decided that we’ll do solo albums after we finished ’Room Service’ in 2001. But after that Marie became ill,” Per sighs. “Lately I’ve been in contact with her quite a lot. She has a house in Halmstad and she’s been here for a couple of weeks now.”

  “Her condition hasn’t changed so much from the beginning of the year. She’s quite alright, spirited and fit, but everything that happened still affects her. All of us, in fact. It’s been a tough year for her, heavy medication and all.”

  Naturally Marie’s album doesn’t have a release date yet. Manager Dimberg also says that it’s not even clear if the album will be in Swedish or English. According to Dimberg, Marie has written songs in both languages.

• Aftonbladet article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle mentioned a while ago that Marie Fredriksson was working on a new solo album. Sources tell The Daily Roxette that she’s been working on new songs when her strength and recovery permit, as there is no established timetable for this project. According to Capitol, she’s currently on vacation with her family. She will continue working on her solo material this fall.

STOCKHOLM - On June 6th Swedes celebrated their National Day. During one of the activities programmed for this day, Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, gives national flags to the most dedicated civil organizations of the Kingdom of Sweden.

  By the end of the celebration a very familiar melody started to sound, for many Marie Fredriksson fans’ surprise, this song was “Tro”, which was interpreted by the Swedish singer Carola accompanied by the Arméns Musikkår (the Army Music Corps).

  The text, though, was modified and instead of “i en vintervärld” (“in a winter world”) Carola sang “i en sommarvärld” (“in a summer world”), to give it a special summer spirit.

  Carola celebrates this year her 20th anniversary as an artist and has released a greatest hits album which is currently #1 on the Swedish charts. “The Carola hysteria of the 80s is back,” wrote Aftonbladet in a recent article.

• SVT’s timetable for the show (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Last week we reported about a nice surprise for all Marie Fredriksson fans: Marie has recorded a song for Per Gessle’s new album “Mazarin”. “Marie is on her way back,” said Per then to Aftonbladet.

  And she certainly is: Marie attended Paul McCartney’s concert in Globen, Stockholm, last night. Marie is a big fan of The Beatles and McCartney, so of course she couldn’t miss this event, that lasted almost three hours and was followed by 13,000 in the audience. Marie’s friend Eva Dahlgren and Benny Andersson were other artists that could be seen at the show.


  Aftonbladet published earlier a picture of Marie at the concert, where you could see she seems very happy.


Mattias contributed to this article

• Aftonbladet’s article

STOCKHOLM - Peter Danowsky, legal counselor for the Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen, has now replied to Marie Fredriksson’s claim against the paper.

  The tabloid, writes the counselor, has not written that Marie is a criminal, or blameworthy. “Nor defamed, abusively treated or [subjected her to] any other outrageous treatment.”

  “Expressen doesn’t seem to have read my summons especially carefully,” Leif Silbersky, Marie’s lawyer, says to the competing newspaper Aftonbladet. “The grounds for my demands are that persons in Marie’s vicinity experienced Marie as untruthful,” Silbersky continues. “Marie got scared as well, and thought the doctors were deceiving her, while at the same time giving the truth to the media.”

  Silbersky also points out that Sjöberg [Expressen’s Editor-in-Chief] at first claimed that Expressen’s information was correct, and then suddenly turned around and admitted that it was wrong publishing it.

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)

SYDNEY - Marie recently sent another message directly to the fans…

Dear Marie Davis and all my fans,

  How can I thank you enough for your kind thoughts and wonderful care during my illness. I want you to know that I know that all your prayers have helped me a lot and given me a lot of strength. I’m feeling so much better every day. Slowly, I’m starting to write music again. Allthough the rest of this year will be a resting year, I’m sure I’ll see you all very soon again.

  From the bottom of my heart, a sincere thanks to all of you.

— Marie Fredriksson

EDITOR’S NOTE: The message was sent to Australian fan Marie Davis via Roxette’s manager Marie Dimberg as a thank you for the prayer chain she started when Marie got ill. Hundreds of people signed the chain to show support by praying or sending positive energy to Marie every day.

STOCKHOLM - Today, Monday, Marie Fredriksson and her lawyer Leif Silbersky served Expressen the lawsuit that was prepared last week. As previously reported by The Daily Roxette, Expressen’s chief editor Otto Sjöberg is being sued for libel and incorrect information.

 The legal definitions are libel or coarse libel, alternatively offence or coarse offence, Silbersky tells aftonbladet.se.

  At least one witness will be called, and that is Marie Dimberg, Marie’s manager. “We have received new information that they [Expressen] knew that their information was incorrect even before publishing it,” Leif states.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Marie Fredriksson is not satisfied with the apology the tabloid Expressen published last Monday. Therefore, she will now start a legal process against Expressen.

  “She is very angry about the treatment she’s got from Expressen,” her laywer Leif Silbersky says.

  To win this case Silbersky will summon doctors who can testify that the information published by Expressen January 31st, is totally faulty. “Expressen won’t get away with this simple apology. We want this tried on two levels now.” Silbersky says to Aftonbladet. One thing is filing a complaint with the press ombudsman, for ethical reasons. Part two is a formal lawsuit in about a week. As reported earlier, they will demand 500,000 Swedish kronor in damages, which will go to the Cancer Fund.

  “If Expressen is convicted, we will demand that the sentence is published by Expressen,” Silbersky states.

(Big-little-girl contributed to this article.)




(The news bill to the right says “MARIE Fredriksson FIGHTS NEW lump that is believed to be TUMOR!”)

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - “We’ll sue Expressen if Marie has the energy to,” states Silbersky in an article published today in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

  Peter Danowsky, Expressen’s legal ombudsman, answered Marie’s letter yesterday. The tabloid feels the apology published last Monday is enough.

  “Personally I feel it’s the height of impudence,” Leif Silbersky says to Aftonbladet. “Marie is in Thailand now, but I’m in continuous phone contact with her. I will recommend her to sue [Expressen]. It has been her intention from the start,” Silbersky continues. “The problem lies in her being in a delicate phase of her illness. But if she says she has the physical and psychological strength, then there will be no doubts.”

  This kind of personal slander is protected via the new EU rules. Silbersky will quote both Swedish and EU legislature.

  “It’s a deep violation of the personal integrity to publish false information of her illness like this. This is a crime of integrity,” Silbersky says.

(Camillarox contributed to this article.)

• Aftonbladet’s article