Censorship Struggle Underway In Iceland 251
jon jonson writes "Information from the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing has been leaked to WikiLeaks, revealing billions in insider loans, and the bank has been working day and night to censor the information contained in the document. Last night at 6:55pm GMT, they served an injunction against the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, five minutes before the 7pm news was due to be aired. The TV station just displayed the WikiLeaks URL instead. They've also injuncted Iceland's national radio, banning all discussion about the contents of the document, and they are actively trying to censor the rest of the Icelandic media along with WikiLeaks."
Who are the insiders? (Score:5, Interesting)
revealing billions in insider loans,
Like most wikileaks documents, I've found it nearly impossible to verify the high level claim (insider trading) off the information provided. They always seem to drop the ball on writing down their analysis...or letting others (otherwise, it's NOT a wiki!). I expect several pages of summary and analysis, but instead, just broad claims with little or no references or supporting facts.
For those of us who aren't experts in Icelandic corporations and banking, here's a sample, after some googling- one of the listed parties is a Robert Tchenguiz [icelandweatherreport.com].
If the claims in that blog posting are true, 500BN of Iceland's citizens' money flew out the door in "loans" to tax haven countries.
Post the Forbidden (Score:1, Interesting)
Someone post the leak onto /.
Re:National security? Nah, that's not possible (Score:5, Interesting)
The police that are mandating the censorship are also owned by the government.
And to complete the farce, the newsroom being censored is ALSO OWNED BY THE STUPID GOVERNMENT.
Re:National security? Nah, that's not possible (Score:5, Interesting)
But wait, there's more! According to my favorite Icelandic blogger [icelandweatherreport.com], the commissioner who issued the injunction has a son who is or was a spokesman for the bank, and another who was an executive and the recipient of one of the no-payments loans.
Iceland is a close-knit society. The anger there is fueled by a sense of betrayal that people from big heterogeneous countries can't fully appreciate.
Re:The proof is in the reaction (Score:4, Interesting)
If it was a bunch of lies, then the bank officials would have pointed that out. That they are scrambling to censor is proof this is absolutly 100% legit. kind of nice of them to remove any doubt eh?
Just like someone deleting his hard drive is proof that he's guilty of some kind of computer crime or copyright infringement, eh?
Innocent till proven guilty, people - while it certainly looks suspicious, it isn't any kind of proof of anything.
Re:Hey, at least they tried (Score:3, Interesting)
No one cares, really... they are loans and will (mostly) get paid back. The banks unable to pay back end up being owned by the feds anyway, and then the books are wide open.
Of course they are trying to censorship this (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's Not CENSORSHIP!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
"Censorship is when a government stops a person or organization from disseminating information"
The Mafia, among other organizations, would thank you for this definition. Executing an entire family, or even an entire village, to prevent the dissemination of sensitive information wouldn't be considered "censorship", unless the government assisted in the executions. Thank you, sir.
Re:National security? Nah, that's not possible (Score:4, Interesting)
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Most people in the US can barely contain their rage about the AIG bailout.
Re:National security? Nah, that's not possible (Score:5, Interesting)
From any practical standpoint, you're quite wrong. I just spent a couple of hours going through the massive FOIA disclosure [csmonitor.com] of the Air Force's internal emails dealing with the aftermath of the Air Force One flyby of the Statue of Liberty back in April. Much of the 553-page document is concerned with detailed observations of bloggers' reactions, even to the point of discussing the rate of change in "tweets per minute" criticizing the White House and USAF.
The US government, at least, takes amateur online journalism very seriously. It's safe to say other governments do as well.
That makes them a "proper source."
When censorship doesn't work (Score:2, Interesting)
There are viable [computerworld.com] alternatives [digitaltrends.com], temporary as they may be...