New website and a new director
May 25, 2014 | Posted in News | By admin
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We have made a brand new website so that it will be easier for you to know us and our work. Easier for our staff to write news and allow you to follow what we are working towards. Many things have changed since we first established the Institute and unfortunately the freedoms we aim to protect are constantly under attack. If you want to contribute to our mission please contact our new executive director Gudjon Idir @ gudjonidir@immi.is. We are very happy to have him onboard. IMMI is a part of various projects and we are currently seeking members of an Advisory board that we will announce in the next few weeks. Feel free to suggest to us who you think will be useful to further the IMMI cause as a member of such a board.
With infinite data love, on behalf of our very dedicated board
Birgitta Jónsdóttir
New IMMI steering committee
May 9, 2014 | Posted in News | By admin
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According to the IMMI resolution the Ministry of Education and Culture is required to work on the resolution’s progression. On the 3rd of May 2012 the minister put together a steering committee which was tasked with analysing and researching the legal framework both in Iceland and abroad in accordance with the resolution. It’s role is to prepare necessary changes in legislation or implement new laws, looking at legislation abroad in the aim of combining the best set of laws to create a safe haven in Iceland for information freedom and freedom of expression.
STEERING COMMITTTE 2012:
- Ása Ólafsdóttir, chairman, appointed by minister of education and culture, without nomination.
- Davíð Logi Sigurðsson, nominated by the ministry of foreign affairs.
- Elfa Ýr Gylfadóttir, nominated by the committee on media.
- Halla Gunnarsdóttir, nominated by the interior ministry.
- Smári McCarthy, nominated by IMMI.
- Tryggvi Björgvinsson, nominated by the ministry of education and culture.
An employee of the steering committee is, Margrét Magnúsdóttir, lawyer.
STEERING COMMITTEE 2013:
After the parliamentary elections in the spring of 2013 a new Steering Committee was appointed :
- Ása Ólafsdóttir, Chairman, appointed by Minister of Education, Science and Culture
- Aðalheiður Ámundadóttir, nominated by IMMI
- Aðalheiður Þorsteinsdóttir, nominated by Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Elfa Ýr Gylfadóttir, nominated by the Media Commission
- Gísli Valdórsson, nominated by the Interior Ministry
- Páll Þórhallsson, nominated by the Prime Minister’s Office
- Sirrý Hallgrímsdóttir, nominated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
- The employee of the steering committee is Margrét Magnúsdóttir, lawyer
Open Letter to Icelandic minister of Interior
February 28, 2013 | Posted in News | By admin
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Today, a group of forty security, privacy and human rights advocates and organizations from around the world released an open letter to Ögmundur Jónasson, Icelandic minister of interior, regarding the ongoing discussions on the possibility of establishing Internet pornography censorship in Iceland.
The group, consisting of individuals and organizations from 19 countries, including Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, Palestine, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, and the United States, objects to the manner in which the discussion has been carried forth, saying that “it is tempting to regard filtering the internet as a quick and easy way to restrict unwanted speech, opinions, or media, which the government regards as harmful for either them or the people. The right to see the world as it is, is critical to the very tenets and functions of a democracy and must be protected at all costs.”
The group further expresses concerns that their efforts to eliminate censorship globally is being harmed by the unchecked nature of the discussion. The letter states that “by stating that Iceland is considering censoring pornographic material on the Internet for moral reasons, they are justifying rather than condemning the actions of totalitarian regimes.“
The letter ends with a request to the minister to reject censorship as a viable option and seek more effective means of improving society, both in Iceland and abroad.
ChokePoint Project, IMMI & Liberit join forces
November 8, 2012 | Posted in News | By admin
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Reykjavík/Amsterdam/Budapest, November 8th 2012
Today ChokePoint Project, International Modern Media Institute (IMMI) and Liberit announce their collaboration on Digital Rights Watch (DiRiWa), a collaborative database for mapping the communications and information rights in the world. The organizations, having worked separately on similar projects, have decided to pool their efforts to map an increasingly complex and internationally relevant set of data.
DiRiWa is a project aiming to collect information about the state of communications and information freedom around the world, generally sorted by legal jurisdiction. DiRiWa is interested in legal rights regarding communication, surveillance, access to government information, censorship, the use (and abuse) of copyright, patent and trademark legislation, and other issues that either legally or practically threaten the free spread of information.
As telecommunications and information flows are increasingly globalized by the Internet, the need for a comprehensive overview becomes more urgent. Issues regarding information regulation are important in modern society because so much of what we do is about sending or receiving information. Information about what politicians are doing, for instance, is critical for a functioning democracy. The right to privacy is considered a fundamental human right, but is often violated through extensive monitoring of electronic communications. Copyright legislation can be used to put in place legal environments that subsequently are used to censor political speech. Much of this happens unnoticed by the majority of people.
DiRiWa aims to map the information terrain of the world and help people understand how their rights are altered by communications over different jurisdictions.
“We are very excited to be teaming up with the ChokePoint Project on the development of the Digital Rights Watch,” said Smári McCarthy, IMMI’s executive director. “We have been interested in this project for a long time, but had too little resources to see it through properly. Working with other great organizations globally will help to push this vital project forward.”
“The hard work on DiRiWa so far has resulted in a structure completely in line with the legislative monitoring requirements of the Chokepoint Project. We are very happy to avoid duplication and take advantage of IMMI´s and Libeirit´s experience in modelling this very diverse dataset. Working towards a right to understand seems increasingly necessary as the world we live in grows in complexity. We are convinced that a combining of efforts, understanding and expertise, as is taking place here, is the best way forward in attempting to enable this right.” said ChokePoint Project executive director Ruben Bloemgarten
“I welcome the addition of diverse new talents to our effort, i hope it helps us getting more visibility and perhaps resources to improve the quality of our output,” concludes Stefan Marsiske, co-founder of diriwa.
About the International Modern Media Institute
IMMI, the International Modern Media Institute, is a civil society think tank dedicated to free speech and information rights. Its aim is to drive the implementation of balanced legal frameworks while assisting scholars, activists and lawmakers achieve legislative change globally. It is based in Reykjavík, Iceland but operates globally.
About ChokePoint Project
The ChokePoint Project attempts to increase situational awareness by building an platform collecting, aggregating, analyzing, contextualizing and visualizing data and information related to censorship, surveillance and human and civil rights. We believe that combining near-realtime, or Really Quite Fast, data from (network) measurements, legislation, journalistic reporting and commercial activity will allow for a system functioning as an early warning system, a research tool and a pubic awareness platform.
Contact
- Chris Pinchen
- e-mail: chris@chokepointproject.net
About Libeirit
Liberit passionately liberates, packages, publishes and utilizes your public sector information. We welcome journalists, policy advocates, NGOs, public administrations to help them with their data gathering and processing needs.
Contact
- Stefan Marsiske
- email: s@ctrlc.hu
IMMI progress report delivered at Icelandic Parliament
October 18, 2012 | Posted in News | By admin
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Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s Minister of Education, Culture and Science gave a report to Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, on the progress of the parliamentary resolution commonly known as the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, or IMMI. The resolution from 2010 calls for the implementation of the strongest free speech laws drawn from around the globe into Icelandic law.
The report to parliament drew attention to the work currently being done by a steering committee consisting of specialists from ministries, media regulators and from IMMI.
The report details the work of the last two years towards a rigorous and well defined codification of the best practices in transparency, freedom of expression and protections against censorship from around the world. These changes will hold Iceland as an example for people of all nations when striving for more democratic and just principles to embrace in their own societies.
The Minister gave a overview of advances being made by a steering committee appointed by the minister to oversee the work on the project. In particular, Katrín Jakobsdóttir reported on work on revising the Icelandic libel law, which has stood unchanged since 1940 despite massive changes to human rights law, and proposals for a set of whistleblower protections which would include a simplification of confidentiality requirements for public employees. She also mentioned the steering committee’s work towards eliminating data retention and prior restraints.
“This is an immensely important and extensive project,” said Katrín Jakobsdóttir at Alþingi. “Whereas the project is extensive and covers a wide range of issues, the proposed bills are in the subject areas of the Prime Minister and Interior Minister. I hope that these bills will come into parliament this season and I believe that the project is going to continue.”
Skúli Helgason, an MP for the Social Democrat Alliance said during the discussion at Parliament: “This case is important from the perspective of democracy and the protection of public interest, but it is also partly a contribution to the new green employment policy for Iceland because one of the objectives of the proposal is to create a progressive environment for the registration and operation of international media and publishing companies, start-ups, human rights and data center companies in Iceland. Already there is an assessment explicitly stating Iceland’s competitiveness in the operation of data centers. I think this resolution was among the finest parliamentary issues that have been brought forth in this term.”
“The minister’s report shows that this project is advancing,” said Smári McCarthy, executive director of IMMI. “We have spent the last three years working on what is undoubtedly the most comprehensive review of information law in history. It was bound to take some time, but we’re now starting to see the fruits of our labor.”
“This report signifies an important milestone for the work we have been doing for the past two years,” said Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the member of parliament who originally sponsored the proposal, and chairman of IMMI’s board of directors. “It shows that the work is continuing at a steady pace, and that important laws are being prepared and proposed.”
Since work began on IMMI, global events have demonstrated irrefutably that there is a need for the protections proposed in Iceland.