Regardless of your views about offshore banking havens, they work. The wealthy are able to exploit loopholes in domestic and international law to stash money in places where it is untouchable.
Could the same be possible for information? Could the world's most curious, revelatory and public interest-driven investigators also stash their goods – journalism – on an island out of reach of the authorities?
Iceland thinks so. It is trying to create a legal system that would protect journalists from the full range of restrictions at work in other countries: libel, official secrets, injunctions, superinjunctions and laws compromising the protection of sources.
The project is heralded by freedom of information campaigners as a potential saviour for journalists in countries such as Sri Lanka, where they have faced violence and even death. The fact that the UK's journalists are seen as a possible beneficiary – as a result of the different threat of costly and inimical libel legislation – is an indictment of the state of our media laws.
But there are many questions remaining about the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative. Would Iceland be willing to violate its international obligations to implement a new law? The Lugano convention, for example, to which Iceland is a party, requires the recognition and enforcement of judgments of the English high court. This makes it difficult for Iceland to avoid so-called libel tourism cases affecting people within its jurisdiction.
~ more... ~
No comments:
Post a Comment