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Selected Press Coverage of IMMI

New York Times: A Vision of Iceland as a Haven for Journalists
BBC News: Wikileaks and Iceland MPs propose 'journalism haven'
The Guardian: Iceland plans future as global haven for freedom of speech
The Spectator: Could Iceland really become an "Information Haven"?
The Guardian: Iceland aims to become haven for investigative journalism
Huffington Post (blog): Iceland Aims To Become Offshore Haven For Journalists
The Guardian: WikiLeaks editor: why I'm excited about Iceland's plans for journalism
Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard: Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers
NPR: Could Iceland's Financial Meltdown Create The World's First Free Speech State?
TAZ.de: Die Schweiz der Bits (German)
Tages Anzeiger: Island will Pressefreiheit zum Standortvorteil machen
UPI.com: Iceland may become investigative haven
editorsweblog.org (blog): Iceland as a "journalism haven"?
BBC News: Iceland's journalism freedom dream prompted by Wikileaks
The Right Perspective (blog): Iceland To Become “Journalist Haven”?
Big Think: Can Journalism Save Iceland?
GigaOm (blog): Iceland Looks to Create Information Haven
IDG: Icelanders hope to host controversial data from around world
Journalism.co.uk (blog): BBC News: Wikileaks and Icelandic MPs propose 'haven' for investigative journalism
The Hindu: Plan for global freedom of speech centre
Anorak.co.uk (satire): Iceland And Wikileaks Create The Icelandic Freedom of Expression Award To Abolish Libel Laws
The Inquisitr: Iceland looking to become the Switzerland for the digital world
World Association of Newspapers: Iceland as a 'Journalism Haven'
La Quadrature du Net: L'Islande deviendrait un modèle pour la liberté de communication [French]
Mbl.is: Gósenland upplýsingafrelsis [Icelandic]
Slashdot: Your Rights Online: Iceland MPs Propose Journalism Haven
IDG: Icelanders hope to host controversial data from around world
Harvard Nieman Journalism Lab: Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers
Computer World Denmark: Island skal huse kontroversielle data fra hele verden [Danish]

References

From Silencing Sources: International Guidelines

(See Privacy International: Silencing Sources)

Guidelines of the committee of ministers of the council of europe on protecting freedom of expression and information in times of crisis 2007. “III. Protection of journalists’ sources of information and journalistic material”
Recommendation No. R (2000) 7 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the right of journalists not to disclose their sources of information.
UN Draft International Code of Ethics, Adopted by the Subcommission on Freedom of Information and of the Press 1952
“Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to free expression. The Commission on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression have long recognized the importance of protection of sources as an aspect of Article 19 though declarations and findings.”
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Abid Hussain, submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/27, Addendum: Report on the mission of the Special Rapporteur to the Republic of Poland. E/CN.4/1998/40/Add.2, 13 January 1998.
“In 2005, the Commission on Human Rights called for states to respect the right of protection of journalistic sources expressing concern over legal cases and searches of newsrooms.” Human Rights Resolution 2005/38.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe: "Access to information by the media in the OSCE region: trends and recommendations" Summary of preliminary results of the survey 30 April 2007
“Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights provides for the right of free expression.”
African Union, Declaration of Principles on Free Expression. Adopted by The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, meeting at its 32nd Ordinary Session, in Banjul, The Gambia, from 17th to 23rd October 2002. XV Protection of Sources and other journalistic material

From Silencing Sources: Specific legal examples

“In Sweden, the principle of anonymity of speakers was first recognized in the Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and the Press in 1766.”
“The most detailed protection is the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act, which is part of the constitution. Under the Act, anyone who is a source has a fundamental right to anonymity and it is prohibited as a criminal offence for journalists to break this duty of confidentiality.”
In the US, the Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that there is no constitutional right of journalists to refuse to testify before a grand jury about their sources of information.” Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665 (1972). (Lesson: we need strong and specific laws even when free speech is protected to start with.)
20 countries have source protection laws: Georgia, Mexico, Indonesia, France, Turkey, Mozambique, Iceland (civil cases), Kosovo.
Lithuania's source protection overturned by court. Decision of 23 October 2002
Qualified source protection: Belgium, Philippines, Armenia, Luxembourg, Finland.
Source protection laws useless in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Australia.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “It should be emphasized that this right does not constitute a duty, as the social communicator does not have the obligation to protect the confidentiality of information sources, except for reasons of professional conduct and ethics.”
Who is a journalist: Belgian law is most open, US law has multi-part test. Argentina and California cover web sites as journalism.
p. 44 anti-terrorism laws in South Africa, Philippines, Uganda, US
“A US federal judge ruled in November 2006 that the New York Times could not use information from anonymous government sources in its defense of a defamation suit if it refused to disclose the identities of the sources.” http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E4DE153EF93BA25752C1A9609C8B63
Bosnia Law on Protection Against Defamation (protects sources)
Kosovo 2006 Law on Defamation and Insult (protects anonymous sources)
The Argentine Civil Court of Appeals in September 2006 ruled that when a journalist claims a defense to defamation under the “Campillay principle” (faithfully reporting something told to them), requiring them then to disclose their confidential source “would amount to prior censorship”. Case CNCiv Sala L, AJP v. Productora Cuatro Cabezas, La Ley 7 de septiembre de 2007.
Public Citizen: Right to speak anonymously list of cases in US
Syria has terrible laws http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/2283-something-rotten-syrias-ministry-communications
“To date, only a few countries have adopted comprehensive laws on whistleblowing. The UK, New Zealand, Ghana, and South Africa have the most developed laws that can truly be called comprehensive. The US and Canada have laws that cover the public sector broadly and Japan recently adopted a law covering the private sector.”
“In Sweden, public employees have a constitutional right of anonymity to speak whatever they wish. In Norway, the Governmental Commission on Free Expression specifically suggested that the Constitution be amended to include protections for anonymous speech. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in May 2006 that public employees were not protected by the Constitution when speaking as part of their official duties.”

From Silencing Sources: Examples of source leaking, searches, and wiretaps

Examples of anonymous sources manipulating journalists: Valerie Plame, Interbrew
Asahi news reporter axed for breaching promise with secret source, Japan Times, 7 August 2007
Peter Preston, How not to defend your source, British Journalism Review Vol. 16, No. 3, 2005
Names in context of forcing release of documents: Sarah Tisdale, Vanessa Leggett, Bill Dunphy, Josh Wolf
p. 32 lists newsroom searches in Hong Kong, Kenya, UK, Russia, Italy, France
p. 36 lists electronic surveillance on journalists in Colombia, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, UK, Japan, Latvia, Czech Republic, Macedonia
p. 38 Philippines, Mexico, Zimbabwe allow wiretaps. US, Council of Europe, Zimbabwe have surveillance infrastructure. In Greece this infrastructure allowed the Prime Minister's phone to be tapped. Vassilis Prevelakis and Diomidis Spinellis, The Athens Affair, IEEE Spectrum, 44(7):26–33
p. 40 list of ways electronic records have been used to out sources: Yahoo/China, UK, Indonesia, US on CIA secret prisons, South Africa
“The USA PATRIOT Act expanded the ability of government officials to obtain phone records based on a National Security Letters without a court order”
“In 2005, the European Union adopted the Directive on Data Retention that requires telecommunications providers to automatically collect and retain all information on all users' activities. The length of the retention can last up to two years. All EU countries must adopt laws by 2009 implementing the Directive.”
p. 42 list of cases where state secrets used as justification for raiding/intimidating journalists: Canada, Taiwan, UK, Russia, Morocco, Germany, Lithuania, China, Russia, Denmark, Peru, UK
“In the US, CIA analyst Mary McCarthy was fired in 2006 after it was suspected that she was the source of stories on rendition and torture by US authorities.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_McCarthy_%28CIA%29
p. 50-51 list of cases when bad things happened to people who revealed secrets: Kenya, Malaysia, UK, Denmark, US, Singapore, India, UK
"You are exposed" magazine article about Canadian privacy