Iceland looking to become the Switzerland for the digital world

With help from Julian Assange and Daniel Schmitt from WikiLeaks the government of Iceland is looking at becoming and international center for investigative journalism publishing. It plans on doing this by passing the most sweeping laws in the world governing source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws.

As Icelandic member of parliament Birgitta Jónsdóttir said to Jonathan Stray from the Nieman Journalism Lab

Jónsdóttir explained that the proposal does not contain final legislation, but would instruct the government to create a package of laws that enhance journalistic freedoms in specific ways. According to an email from Assange (which was then leaked, ironically enough) the amendments would cover source protection, whistleblower protection, immunity for ISPs and other carriers, freedom of information requests, and strong limits on prior restraint. They would also provide protection against libel judgements from other jurisdictions, much as the United States may soon do with the Free Speech Protection Act of 2009.

This package was designed by a working group including representatives from government, civil society, and Wikileaks, which has considerable experience in international media law and censorship issues.

As much as Jónsdóttir believes that the government could see a vote on the new laws within the month she also acknowledge that the government could also end up dissolving before the vote could be taken due an upcoming referendum.