Iceland aiming to be a global press freedom haven

Nonno

Habari Na Mijeldi
"REYKJAVIK — After Iceland's near-economic collapse laid bare deep-seated corruption, the country aims to become a safe haven for journalists and whistleblowers from around the globe by creating the world's most far-reaching freedom of information legislation.

The project, developed with the help of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, flies in the face of a growing tendency of governments trying to stifle a barrage of secret and embarrassing information made readily available by the Internet.

On June 16, a unanimous parliament, or Althing, voted in favour of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), a resolution aimed at protecting investigative journalists and their sources.

"We took all the best laws from around the world and pulled them together, just like tax havens do, in order to create freedom of information and expression, a transparency haven," Birgitta Jonsdottir, the member of parliament behind the initiative, told AFP.

Describing herself as an "anarchist," the 43-year-old said she had decided to get into politics to seize the opportunities to change the system in Iceland following its dramatic financial collapse at the end of 2008.

Jonsdottir was shocked to witness the attempts at censorship in her country, which had long been held up as a model democracy.

In the most resounding example, a court injunction in August 2009 forced Icelandic public broadcaster RUV to back down at the last minute from transmitting a report on one of the country's three largest banks that all went belly-up less than a year earlier, pushing Iceland to the verge of bankruptcy.

Instead of its report on the Kaupthing bank's loanbook, RUV broadcast images from whistleblower site WikiLeaks, which had published the incriminating documents, in an attempt to draw attention to the limits being put on freedom of expression in Iceland.

"Freedom of information and freedom of speech are the pillars of democracy. Now, if you don't have that, you don't really have a democracy," said Jonsdottir, wearing 'Free Tibet' and 'Wikileaks' pins on her jacket.

Blaming the threat of terrorism, "all countries are facing new sets of laws which are making it more difficult in particular for investigative journalists and book writers," she lamented.

The aspiring 'island of transparency' aims to strengthen source protection, encourage whistleblowers to leak information and help counter so-called "libel tourism," which consists in dragging journalists before foreign courts in countries with laws that best suit the prosecution."

More at: AFP: Iceland aiming to be a global press freedom haven
 
E

EmptyTimCup

Guest
might as well, there economy is so far in the toilet, they could not afford to import beef for McDonald's Hamburgers because the exchange rate sucks so bad


:evil:
 

CrashTest

Well-Known Member
I think since 1936, Iceland has banned blacks and jews from entering the country. How's that for border security?

When I lived there as a kid, my Dad was the duty officer one night on the Naval Air Station. Seems the Navy mistakenly sent a guy over who was "white" on his paperwork but looked black (probably was a half and half like our Kenyan President). My dad said he had to turn his ass around and put him back on the plane home. Probably would have caused an international incident if the Icelandics found out there was a black guy in their country.

Iceland sounds like a fair-minded place. :sarcasm:
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
I've enjoyed my stays there. Party like the day never ends (its doesn't) and they share my love of off-roading.

And heck..we all know that a country with the population of almost exactly the same as southern MD..has to have some major influence on the world. Or so Nonno would think.
 

BOP

Well-Known Member
I think since 1936, Iceland has banned blacks and jews from entering the country. How's that for border security?

When I lived there as a kid, my Dad was the duty officer one night on the Naval Air Station. Seems the Navy mistakenly sent a guy over who was "white" on his paperwork but looked black (probably was a half and half like our Kenyan President). My dad said he had to turn his ass around and put him back on the plane home. Probably would have caused an international incident if the Icelandics found out there was a black guy in their country.

Iceland sounds like a fair-minded place. :sarcasm:

Look at the up side: no Jesse Jackson, no Al Sharpton, no Louis Farrakan, no Rev Write.

Most of all, no Kenyan usurper hell bent on destroying the Icelandic economy and remaking it in his own image.
 
Top