Iceland Wants To Become A Hub For Free Speech Journalism Protection

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

Fri, Feb 12th 2010 12:20pm — Mike Masnick

Iceland got some bad press in the last year over its massive rise and devastating fall as a financial powerhouse, despite having such a tiny population. But now, the isolated island nation has decided that if it can't be the center of the financial world, it might as well become the hub for investigative journalism. It's set to announce "the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world." My first thought on hearing of this was that it sounded like the country wanted to become a haven for Wikileaks... and, indeed, the report at Nieman Lab says that Wikileaks was involved in drafting the new legislation. I think this is a great idea -- and the world needs places where free speech is much more seriously protected, but I do wonder how it will work in practice.

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Filed Under: free speech, iceland, investigative journalism, journalism, wikileaks

46 Comments

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anon, 12 Feb 2010 @ 12:52pm

legalize prostitution
The country is full of gorgeous six foot tall blonde women, they will make a fortune in sex trourism!
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anon, 12 Feb 2010 @ 12:52pm

legalize prostitution
The country is full of gorgeous six foot tall blonde women, they will make a fortune in sex trourism!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 12:58pm

"I think this is a great idea -- and the world needs places where free speech is much more seriously protected, but I do wonder how it will work in practice."

The mainstream media of the U.S. will declare war on them (or, rather, they will pull some strings and congress, their puppets, will declare war on them).
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:07pm

Financial Aid
Considering their financial problems, I think maybe Iceland is just going to use this as a threat to get financial aid from the worlds larger, wealthier nations. You know, offer them the right financial aid packages and they'll just forget about this.
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Designerfx (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:07pm

Re:
say what?

A country with no money will not be swayed by power. Think about it.

If they have the best journalistic protection, then it's even more assured that they will have significantly more power than a country with money, aka the US.

As an example, look at how sweden handles piracy issues irrespective of US sway/attempts to influence it.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:25pm

Re: Re:
Well, the U.S. is clearly losing the war on terrorism. We sent, what, 30K + troops after Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda constitutes, what, 2K members. Yet for every member of Al Qaeda that dies as a result of this war how many MORE U.S. troops die in this war? A LOT more.
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PRMan, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:25pm

Sounds like a recipe...
This sounds like a recipe for being invaded at some point in the future when a power like neighboring Britain no longer likes what you are saying.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:28pm

Re: Re: Re:
(to continue what I said) I'm not saying that this war on terrorism is a bad thing, I am certainly not Muslim and would hate to live under an Islam regime. I'm just stating the facts as they are, the U.S. is indeed losing the war on terrorism.
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Rasmus, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:31pm

Re: Financial Aid
You could be right, but on the other hand you might be wrong.

Because there is a certain pride in Icelanders regarding these matters. The country was founded by people fleeing from Norway to retain their free speech and suppression from the central government. Almost everyone in Iceland is a direct descendant of those early founders from around 900 AD.

So being a haven for free speech and freedom from suppression is a core element in the national mythology in Iceland.
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The Anti-Mike (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:41pm

Unless all the reporters are going to move to Iceland and stay there, they will likely not be able to avoid libel in the country they live in. Virtual hiding won't work.
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Alan Gerow (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:47pm

Re: Re: Financial Aid
It used to be a core element in the national mythology of the U.S. as well. I think there used to be Constitutional Amendments regarding it, I think. But no one pays any attention to those anymore.
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DazzaJ, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:47pm

Great idea for Australians
This would be good for Australians seeing Conroy and the Labour dictators are trying to bring in filtering, and numerous laws to limit Australian online content, both access and posting. It has to be approved content! (Great wall of OZ)
I think if they also setup hosting plans and VPN networks they could attract a lot of people from countries like China, Australia and the like!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 1:51pm

Re:
It will take some time, but eventually the laws will change to allow them reasonable safe harbors even in the U.S. and most everywhere.

I know you are very anti civil rights and you want unjust laws that favor you unfairly but if history has shown us anything, most laws that favor a small faction of the population eventually get demolished (though often does take a long time and a lot of hard work). I mean, not too long ago slavery used to be legal and even after slavery was reduced racial discrimination was legal and often written into various laws/the legal system. Look how far we, as a society, have progressed towards getting rid of unjust laws, do you honestly believe that your desire to create, maintain, and enforce unjust laws will continue to be satisfied for a very long period if time.

However, we must also realize that unjust laws don't just get rid of themselves. History has shown that it takes a lot of work to eliminate unjust laws and the Internet is not going to magically eliminate them either.

and as far as being able to punish those that leak information, they can't even do that now in areas without safe harbors. Heck, China can't even control information flow (much less the U.S.) and their many many attempts in the past have completely failed. Many journalists are willing to be punished (and go to jail or worse) and have been punished for not revealing their sources. The government can't jail everyone. The war on information distribution will fail just like the war on drugs and the war on terrorism.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
"I am certainly not Muslim and would hate to live under an Islam regime."

Hmm, how certain are you of this? For instance, would you consider the USA to be a "Christian" regime? I wouldn't, but others do, I suppose.

In any case, there are examples of moderate Islamic nations out there in which you probably wouldn't feel "Oppressed" in the way you might be thinking...
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:28pm

Re: Re:
Many journalists are willing to be punished (and go to jail or worse...

Many more, perhaps most, are not.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:31pm

Unless all the reporters are going to move to Iceland and stay there, they will likely not be able to avoid libel in the country they live in. Virtual hiding won't work.

Do you support freedom of speech ?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:32pm

Re: Re: Re:
If so few people were willing to risk their lives to stand up for what they believe in the U.S. military and many other governments would be unable to recruit anyone.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:35pm

Re: Re: Re:
The freedoms that we enjoy in the U.S. exist exactly because there were so many people in history willing to sacrifice a lot in order to achieve those freedoms. When it comes to people standing up for something they believe I do believe many people will be willing to sacrifice a lot.

When you think "journalist" you are probably referring to the corrupt mainstream media and so you figure that they would never sacrifice anything for something they believed was good for society. But the mainstream media does not constitute journalists, they constitute a corporate controlled criminal organization.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:44pm

Re:
No, TAM only supports an oppressive government that unfairly benefits him.
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The Anti-Mike (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:45pm

Re:
I support free speech for those who are willing to take responsibility for their speech.

The "freedom of speech" is a one sided concept that allows people to say whatever they want without concern. Freedom of Speech is too often a cover for dishonest speech, misleading speech, and so on.

Without a fair balance between free speech and responsibility for that speech, it just becomes another abusive weapon.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:52pm

Re: Re:
"Without a fair balance between free speech and responsibility for that speech, it just becomes another abusive weapon."

I'm sorry, but that is an absolute misunderstanding of what freedom of speech is and why it is so important. Talk like that should be reserved for elite globalists. Limiting freedom of speech is the one domino that, if removed, destroys the pyramid of freedom on the whole.
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Jorge, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:54pm

Sneakers 1992
We’ve seen how the US and others have leaned on Switzerland to release private bank info to capture tax cheats. I could see how Iceland would suffer a similar fate regarding informants. I wonder if they have done a full threat analysis regarding this move?
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Roger A, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:56pm

Re: Re:
Oh, you mean like Fox News?
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 2:56pm

Re: Re:
Hahahahahahaha....

Hahahahahahahahahaha...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

What's your real name Mr. "Free speech for those willing to take responsibility"? Put it out in the open, and sing it loud. Address and phone number too. Let's see just how willing you are to take full responsibility for your free speech.
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mrharrysan (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 3:01pm

Re: Re: Re:
Maybe TAM is really Glen Beck??!!
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 3:17pm

Re: Re:
So people should be allowed to exercise free speech but they should be willing to take the punishment for their free speech. So if someone disagrees with the president they should be allowed to disagree but then they should be willing to face the consequences, like jail time or execution. But that defeats the purpose of free speech. By your standards free speech exists everywhere and has always existed everywhere. By your standards we don't even need a constitution protecting our free speech because we all have free speech, we just have to face the consequences afterwords.
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Nastybutler77 (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 3:51pm

Re: Re:
I almost never agree with you about anything, TAM, but I've tried really hard to respect you and your rediculous opinions, despite the fact that you argue against basic facts (such as simple economic priciples) like a child.

After this posting, I no longer have any respect for you or anything you ever have to say. You've just lost any benefit of the doubt I was giving you. You, just like the opinions you express, are worthless.
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Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:02pm

Re: Re:
I just can't wrap my head around this "responsibility for speech" concept a few folks seem to advocate. You say it with such seriousness that it makes me think you must have some reasoning behind it, I just don't get it.

How can we have any sort of reasonable discourse and make any sort of progress if either party is afraid of reprisal for the things they say?

I assume you hide behind a pseudonym because you do fear consequences from your speech, however unjust those consequences may be. Perhaps even as simple as some people might (unjustifiably) take some inappropriate action against you. But you argue that everyone else should take full responsibility for everything they say because there's never any consequences?

It's not just the government to fear, it's idiots too.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:14pm

Sorry not interested ...there broke no money
ya right you cant manage your country you want people to move there and let who run it and hows that isp doing that stifles free speech and hows MICROSFOT doing over there and ....you get the hint

SHAM ME SCAM colour me green .....
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hey i know what to do, 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:28pm

lets sue bit torren ttrackers
thast not against free speech in anyway
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-tracker-loses-lengthy-legal-battle-100211/

ya know like people might want to use and share FREELY
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anti anonymous, 12 Feb 2010 @ 4:31pm

ya know the TAM guy
hey how about making sense insead of trying to use hyperbole on people to ry and confuse confound and stir the pot up( oh wait that pot aint your its mine...smokes it) you though got hay and are smoking it....
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 5:07pm

Re: Re:
I support free speech for those who are willing to take responsibility for their speech.

Translation: You can say whatever you want as long as I can shoot you for it.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 5:11pm

Re: Re: Re:
What's your real name Mr. "Free speech for those willing to take responsibility"? Put it out in the open, and sing it loud. Address and phone number too. Let's see just how willing you are to take full responsibility for your free speech.

TAM is a lying hypocrite to the hilt.
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The Anti-Mike (profile), 12 Feb 2010 @ 5:43pm

Re: Re: Re:
Your right to free speech ends right where it affects my rights.

"FIRE!"

If you are not willing to take responsibility for your speech, not accept what it does to others (especially when it ir untrue), then you haven't earned it.

Free speech isn't an absolute.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 6:01pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Hint: If you don't support speech you don't like, then you don't actually support free speech at all.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 6:12pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Hardly anything you say is ever true yet I support your right to free speech.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2010 @ 6:44pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Your right to free speech ends right where it affects my rights.

It isn't your right to deny others their rights.
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Paul`, 12 Feb 2010 @ 10:58pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
... So all Muslims are terrorists and want to live under Sharia law? I'm pretty sure they'd move to a country with Sharia law if that where the case.

Also, guerilla warfare tactics (those used my the insurgents, I wouldn't call them terrorists if they are fighting an invading force) are particularly effective against regular militaries as they work with minimal troop numbers and can inflict large casualties.

Back on topic though, yay for Iceland.
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Paul`, 12 Feb 2010 @ 11:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
These days they tend to throw money and collage degrees at people to get the to join.
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packrat (profile), 13 Feb 2010 @ 4:54am

iceland
database center, free speech and data minging shadow profiles!

if the DB's are free, (not copyright) LOTS of people will be linking in there, don't you think?

sounds like the place irsh monks discovered is gonna BURIED under nat. enquirier reporting to me.

I want to move there. We'll see how the ref goes..
packrat
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2010 @ 7:28am

"From an economic perspective, individuals who give away copyrighted works illegally can cause as much harm as those who sell those works illegally"

From a common sense perspective, no one owes you a monopoly on anything and as such, any time someone buys a piece of work from you that you have copy privileges on, they are giving you UNOWED money. and all the money that you claim they should pay you for infringement is UNOWED. and all the money that courts grant you from those who infringe on your privileges is UNOWED money. We shouldn't allow your privilege to collect unowed money to get in the way of our rights.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2010 @ 7:33am

Re:
oops, meant to post this somewhere else. Sorry. You may delete it from here.
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Wolfy, 13 Feb 2010 @ 4:59pm

Pay no attention to the paid shill for mpaa/riaa. It's not worth your time or effort.
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Ex local music promoter geek, 14 Feb 2010 @ 7:07pm

What about when the servers all end up in Iceland?
When lawsuits and DMCA gets more abusive in the states, people are going to be anonymously posting to servers in Iceland, because Iceland will protect anonymity and free speech. Which is a huge economic boon to Iceland. And once the economic benefits are realized, I'd bet that other countries will start changing laws to bust of their piece of the cheddar.

Perhaps not the US, UK, China etc. but smaller countries with smoother legal systems and no real industry might start to recognize the economic potential that 100 technophiles and 10,000 servers might offer their nation.
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Dementia (profile), 15 Feb 2010 @ 5:42am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
In point of fact, this applies to most rights. Your rights are only rights until they infringe on someone else's rights.
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vpn china, 23 Feb 2010 @ 1:55am

vpn
i am in china, and i can unblock it with a china vpn, but it's really a pain to have to do that
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