Iceland passes law on press freedom and protection

The WikiLeaks-advised proposal to build an international “new media haven” in Iceland, with the world’s strongest press and whistleblower protection laws, and a “Nobel” prize for for Freedom of Expression, has passed the Icelandic Parliament.

(Press release from IMMI)

50 votes were cast in favour of the bill, zero against, one abstained. Twelve members of parliament were not present. Vote results are available at http://www.althingi.is/dba-bin/atkvgr.pl?nnafnak=43014

One of the inspirations for the proposal was the dramatic August 2009 gagging of of Iceland’s national broadcaster, RUV by Iceland’s then largest bank, Kaupthing:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Financial_collapse:_Confidential_exposure_analysis_of_205_companies_each_owing_above_EUR45M_to_Icelandic_bank_Kaupthing,_26_Sep_2008

Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as per
the opinion of the parliament’s general affairs committee
[http://www.althingi.is/altext/138/s/1329.html]. The first of these
altered slightly the wording of the first paragraph so as to widen
the arena for research. The second of these added two new items to
the list of tasks for the government:

– That the government should perform a detailed analysis,
especially with respect to operational security,
for the prospect of operating data centers in Iceland.

– That the government should organize an international conference
in Iceland regarding the changes to the legal environment being caused
by expansion of cloud computing, data havens, and the judicial state
of the Internet.

Video footage from the proposal’s vote will be available at:

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php?raeda=rad20100616T033127&horfa=1

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php?raeda=rad20100616T033306&horfa=1

For details of the proposal, please see
http://www.immi.is