New Media Haven

[xmasdale]

Iceland Becomes "New Media Haven"

By Julian Assange

17 June, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Reykjavik, Iceland; 4:00 UTC, June 16th 2010: 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 unaminously passed the Icelandic Parliament.

50 votes were cast in favor, 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_an alysis_
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&horf a=1

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

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

Julian Assange is Editor in Chief WIKILEAKS