Jake Appelbaum says,
The IMMI (Icelandic Modern Media Initiative) passed last night
unanimously (tweet 1, tweet 2).Read more about the IMMI here. Here’s the WikiLeaks talk about IMMI from the last Chaos Communications
Congress. Here’s the time line.This is a really big deal for journalists and free speech activists
everywhere. This has been a major effort by hundreds of people from all over the globe, and most importantly the Icelandic people! I have an unending amount of
respect for the people of Iceland. They’ve decided that history
shouldn’t be erased, that people should be free to discuss what is
actually happening in the world around them, and most of all they’ve
decided to help the entire planet with this in mind.
Below, a statement from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange about Wikileaks’ involvement in this initiative.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [Announce] WikiLeaks inspired “New media haven” proposal
passes Parliament
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:00:17 +0100 (BST)
From: Julian AssangeFYI:
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
[here].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.Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as per
the opinion of the parliament’s general affairs committee
[Link]. 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:
For details of the proposal and press contacts, please see
http://www.immi.is
Here’s a related video report on Al Jazeera.
(image: The Geothermal Genie, a Creative Commons licensed photograph taken in Iceland, from the Flickr stream of “stuckincustoms,” whose terrific HDR photoblog is here.)