- And finally some good news from Iceland.
The annual World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) places Iceland on top of the list, along with Norway and Luxemburg.
Iceland jointly topped the list last year as well as in 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002, when RSF started compiling it. Well done Iceland.
Northern European (and especially Scandinavian) countries, where robust press freedom is firmly established, have dominated the top end of the lists since 2002.
Being top of such a list for seven years running is clearly something to be proud of, but as a Guardian reader comments: "(...) journalists in Iceland, despite having the most freedom in the world, somehow missed that their economy was about to implode". It is a very good point.
RSF looks at a number of factors when drawing up the index, including the treatment of journalists, freedom of speech and information as well as media ownership.
According to the document, 81 journalists and 32 media employees were killed last year, 64 of which in Iraq. 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, which is twice as many as died during the twenty years of war in Vietnam.
7 comments:
It is,as you say, striking how Icelandic media unanimously failed to predict the, by most outside observers, inevitable collaps of the icelandic economy.
even more striking is ,how this, since the first serious warnings from the imf and finch in 2006, hardly have been covered at all,other than by referring to articles in brittish press (which,since the cod-wars,has been percieved as a bit anti-icelandic).
Why have this never been an issue?
Who would benefit from this?
Is this an example of self sencorship? If,so,who pulls the strings?
Even though the icelandic press by all means is free ,there are some peculiarities with tiny societies like Iceland that a large scale index as the WPF wont catch.
The political, financial, intellectual and culture elites consist of just a handfull of people in Reykjavik ,that knows eachother well and probarbly all are related;most people are related in Iceland ,or at least have relatives from the same village.
When you apply this to the RSF standards of media ownership,what would be watertight bulkheads of independent companies in a larger scale,will be mainly the same people in an intricate web of cross ownership ,family and friends.
To give you an idea of how messy this is:
Baugur Group (which you probarbly know well in the UK) ownes the mediagroup Birtir (mainly magazines and glossies)and the tabloid DV directly. They also own Dagsbrun who ownes mediagroup 365 who ownes two of three icelandic newspapers,4 radiostations and two tv-stations.
Kaupthing ownes a part of Baugur.
Landsbanki ownes a part of 365.
Landsbankis main shareholder ,Bjorgolffson (45%), ownes Burdaras (investmentgroup), Novator (inv.gr.),Actavis (int.pharmacy comp) and icelandair which again ownes a part of landsbanki.
Bjorgolfssons father is chairman of Landsbankii and ownes about 50% of Morgunbladid ,he is a close friend of David Oddson (former prime minister and currently head of the central bank).
The founder of Baugur and current chairman, Johansson, has been linked to the russian mafia and money laundring in the 90s and was charged for over 40 counts including tax-fraud and embazzelment in 2005.
Bjorgolfsson built his fortune in St.Petersburgh in the early 90s,co-founding Bravo Brewery and has also been linked with the russian mafia and corrup Russian politicians.
Allthough none of them were convicted,it was impossible to do buisness in Russia in that period without getting your hands dirty.
Maybe the lack of coverage is not that striking after all..
As an additional comment I could also mention that Bjorgolfssons father , chairman of Landsbanki (Icesave) and majority owner of the second newspaper,Morgunbladid, Bjorgolfur Gudmunsson,also was involved in the infamous Bravo-brewery in St.Petersburgh in the early 90s. He was charged on 450 cases and spent 12 months in jail for book-keeping offences. You probarbly know him better as the owner of West-Ham united.
Recently, mediagroup 365 (owned by Baugur)merged with Posthusid Arvaki,publishing company of Morgunbladid.
Three people, all linked to shady buisness in Russia in the early 90s
, all central figures in the investment boom in Iceland the last decade ownes all private media (except for some silly radio-stations).
It do smell a bit fishy..
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