Iceland Proposal to Create Journalism Haven 

A potential change to journalism law in Iceland could greatly benefit investigative reporting, and sexual rights around the globe. The proposal from the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) seeks to make the island nation the world's leader in safeguards for  journalists. By drawing together media protection laws from around the globe, the proposal would give enhanced confidentiality to journalists and  their sources, protect news publishers and Internet service providers from legal action, and safeguard news agencies from being prosecuted for  in countries with stricter libel laws.  A vote on the proposal that would lead to its formalization in law is pending, but support for the proposal among Icelandic Members of Parliament is high.

The proposal has been supported by the investigative news source Wikileaks, which currently must operate from multiple countries in order  to gain the same level of journalistic protections being proposed by the IMMI. Wikileaks has garnered attention for its muckraking, exposing corporate scandal,  publishing previously blocked news stories, and revealing classified government documents. Should the proposal come to pass,  Wikileaks and news sources like it would be able operate freely from Iceland.

A review of Wikileaks most notable stories show how this potential boon for investigative journalism could also have lasting impacts on issues of sexuality around the globe. For one, Wikileaks has had incredible success at uncovering confidential government document, most notably the 2007 release of the detainee treatment procedures manual used by American personnel at Guantanamo Bay. By protecting journalists and their sources, these new laws could help to expose hidden government abuses, including the use of sexual violence, and extra-judicial violence directed at dissident groups, including women's rights groups and queer organizations.

These protections could create greater oversight of extremist organizations as well. Wikileaks has already been able to expose the operations and members of far-right political organizations, including the British National Party and the American neo-Nazi group National Social Movement. Given the recent history of political violence associated with these types of organizations, including the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller and the bomb attacks of Eric Robert Rudolph which included a lesbian bar and multiple abortion clinics, exposing them to public scrutiny can help safeguard the public from future acts of terrorism.

Exposing government censorship, particularly as more governments are implementing internet regulations, can also help to protect the free flow of information about sexuality. In 2009, Wikileaks published a list of internet sites set to be banned by the Australian government. While the list included pages with illegal content, including child pornography and images of bestiality, it also contained the URLs of websites with legal content. Monitoring government restrictions of information online could be crucial to protecting the internet as the primary source of uncensored sexuality information for many.

It is hoped that by drawing Wikileaks and similar news sources to set up offices in Iceland, the law will help the country rebound from its devastating economic collapse. The law could also help save Wikileaks, which has temporarily suspended operations, in part from the high cost of maintaining servers in multiple locations to avoid prosecution. With news organizations in general facing hard economic times, the proposed changes have the potential to decrease overhead costs by decreasing their legal fees and giving them a central home from which to operate.

If all goes as planned, Iceland's emergence as a new media hub will also be a success for sexual rights around the world.

Jack Mohr was the communications intern at the National Sexuality Resource Center. He is also a student in the Sexuality Studies MA program at San Francisco State University. For his graduate project, he organized The Bisexual Art Project, an art show that explored the different ways individuals understand and engage with their bisexuality.