It's great to learn that the Icelandic Modern Media Initiavtive has passed parliament, but I have my doubts that this actually will create a haven for freedom of speech and investigative reporting.
The reason? I've covered both libel tourism and Icelandic media closely for several years, and remain unconvinced that the new Icelandic legislation will remove the challenges in these two areas over night - but, as I said the last time wrote about this, I'd love nothing better than to be proved wrong.
See also:
- My blog posts on libel and libel tourism
Photo by me from my December 2008 reporting trip to Rekjavik, more on Flickr.
Geir Bin Laden?
Are things so calm in Iceland that Icelanders have to reference terrorist acts in other countries to make a point?
Or is it an unfortunated coincicence that the guy's name contains Bin Laden... and is "Geir" the Icelandish equivalent of "Gary"? (It seems that Gary Bin Laden would be an unlikely grouping of name parts.)
The Icelanders need to take a page from our Tea Partiers. Maybe put a little Hitler moustache on that guy.
Posted by: delmer | June 23, 2010 at 04:38 PM
No, the real name of the guy the demonstraters are calling "Geir bin Laden" here is Geir Haarde, who's the former prime minister of Iceland. If you click on that link to my photos from that Reykjavik trip you'll find there's also a sign where the then head of the central bank, David Oddson, is labeled "David bin Laden". Incidentally, the latter has since, after he lost his job when a new governement came to power, gone one to become editor of Morgunbladid - one of the biggest newspapers on Iceland.
Posted by: Kristine | June 27, 2010 at 08:53 PM