"There are already a lot of companies that have started to host data in Iceland because of it [push for expression reforms] and the government has an obligation to fulfill its promise to all of these people that are already trusting Iceland to look after their data," Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is also a member of the Icelandic parliament said.
In 2010, the parliament of Iceland unanimously adopted a resolution stating that Iceland should become a safe haven of information and expression. However, Jonsdottir noted that the Icelandic government is not doing enough to implement the required reforms aiming to make Iceland a country with the most sophisticated legislation in the field of privacy, freedom of expression and the protection of journalists.
The process is understood to be a long-term strategy, but at the moment, it is not being funded well enough, Jonsdottir said highlighting that "the ideology about this proposal was about to have always the best possible laws in the field," which includes the constant upgrading and monitoring of laws in the field.
"I did help create the Pirate Party in order to have people who have this sort of focus and expertise inside the parliament – that is very important," Jonsdottir told Sputnik, explaining that these people understand the global implications with regard to privacy.
"Privacy laws are constantly being ratified, but people do not realize that. When laws are being made about public databases, access to them, it is very important that people understand the consequences of that and it also has to do with even our national security. So it's extremely important that we have people inside the system that understand what legal changes are needed in the bigger picture," Jonsdottir pointed out.
At the same time, according to the Pirate Party member of parliament, Iceland"s coalition government of the Progressive Party and the Independence Party, is now working against the 2010 resolution, even though they supported the initiative four years ago.
Iceland's Pirate Party was founded in late 2012 and won three seats in the 2013 parliamentary election, becoming the first pirate party in the world to enter a national parliament.
WikiLeaks Had Key Role in Inspiring Iceland's Freedom of Information Reforms: Pirate Party
The ideas of the WikiLeaks whistleblower website and its creators have played an instrumental role in inspiring Iceland"s push to become a safe haven of information, a co-founder of Iceland"s Pirate Party told Sputnik news agency Tuesday, amid fears that the country is not doing enough to fulfill the initiative.
On Monday, the executive director of the International Modern Media Institute (IMMI) in Iceland Gudjon Idir said the Icelandic government is not doing enough to implement the most sophisticated freedom of expression legislations.
"They [WikiLeaks] played a very instrumental and important role," Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is also a member of the Icelandic parliament for the Pirate Party, told Sputnik, adding that it should be legal to have access to information that should be in the public domain. "It is essential for any healthy society that there are strong protections and encouragements for whistleblowers who report on corruption in our systems and corporations."
In 2010, Iceland unanimously adopted a resolution stating that Iceland should become a safe haven for information and freedom of expression.
"WikiLeaks was very important at that time, because they have figured out ways to keep data running online no matter what legal threats they were faced with and so we looked up the laws that they figured out to work with, the best possible laws from different countries in order to keep data accessible no matter what sort of powers tried to put it down – the governments or corporations," Jonsdottir said.
According to the IMMI that was founded in 2011 to deliver research on the legislations required to fulfill Iceland"s ambitious plan, the main idea is to make "a phenomenon like WikiLeaks unnecessary, in effect to fully legalize an operation like WikiLeaks or other similar platforms."
The 2010 resolution details how to implement a legislative package which both protects freedom of speech and expression, but also freedom of information.
At the same time, WikiLeaks is not involved in Iceland"s reforms, the activities of the IMMI or the Pirate Party.
Jonsdottir pointed out that at a time when media is in a transformative stage, with the biggest news outlets having legal departments much larger the investigative journalists" departments, the need to adopt strong laws protecting the sources of journalists is absolutely essential.
"Thank God, WikiLeaks was around at that time in order to be the icebreakers to get attention to the failings," Jonsdottir concluded.
WikiLeaks is a media organization, designed to provide people with important information, usually unavailable in other media sources. It specializes in investigative journalism, frequently based on anonymous information from top-level officials and leaked data.
