|
Iceland's Parliament Makes Country a Data Haven
One of the more awful developments of the last few decades has been the ability of corporations and high-profile individuals to use the courts against the media. Iceland, more famous for volcanic ash and banking meltdowns, has just established a new level of press protection. Its Althing, the world's oldest parliament (established in 930 AD), yesterday passed the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, which creates the world's strongest press and whistleblower protection rules in the world. The vote was 50 for, none against, one abstention, 12 absent.
One of the main events that led to this new law was the fascistic behavior of Kaupthing Bank and its lawyers in censoring the Icelandic press by court injunction. At the end of July 2009, WikiLeaks.org received a 210-page file that "presents an exposure analysis of 205 entities from around the world who owed 45 to 1250 million euros each to the Icelandic bank Kaupthing. Not long after producing this internal report, the bank collapsed. Many of the loans are to insiders and unsecured." Within 24 hours of the file being posted, WikiLeaks received a threat from Kaupthing's lawyers:
It has come to our urgent attention that on the following link:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Financial_collapse:_Confidential_exposure_analysis_of_205_companies_each_owing_above_%E2%82%AC45M_to_Icelandic_bank_Kaupthing%2C_26_Sep_2008 certain information has been submitted on www.wikileaks.org . These are highly sensitive confidential information from Kaupthings bank hf. loan book regarding the bank's clients subject to bank secrecy in Iceland. Any public disclosure or distribution of these information is strictly forbidden and subject to penalty and imprisonment according to Icelandic law.
To WikiLeak's eternal credit, the e-mail reply read:
No. We will not assist the remains of Kaupthing, or its clients, to hide its dirty laundry from the global community. Attempts by Kaupthing or its agents to discover the source of the document in question may be a criminal violation of both Belgium source protection laws and the Swedish constitution. Who is your US counsel?
However, Wikileaks also reports, "At 18:55 GMT Sat Aug 1, Iceland's national broadcaster, RÚV, had its 19:00 nightly newscast enjoined to prevent reporting the document." A more blatant violation of the public's right to know is hard to imagine. The argument that the bank's data are private is, of course, complete nonsense as a great many of these loans may, in fact, violate numerous laws. Protection of private data must not obstruct justice.
The law includes provisions to stop the enforcement of overseas judgments that violate Icelandic law. As a result, numerous news organizations are considering moving their investigative journalism operations to Iceland, including ABC News and Der Speigel. The law also appears to prohibit any kind of investigations into the identity of anonymous sources, which will be difficult to enforce outside Iceland. However, by routing all communications through Iceland, an organization comes under the jurisdiction of the new law, so it can provide some protection outside Iceland.
Where this gets very interesting is in Iceland's talks with Brussels to join the EU. While 4 out of the 5 main political parties oppose joining and most Icelanders are against it, economic realities may force the country to join. If so, this new law may have application outside Iceland. It would be a welcome counter to abominations like Britain's libel laws, which are so draconian, California has passed laws saying judgments based on them are unenforceable in the Golden State. The current discussions focus on the banking issues Iceland has with the UK and the Netherlands, but the data haven may prove to be a more enduring development.
© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
Kensington Review Home
|
|
|