Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 8

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2010
Opinion | Anna AndersenNews | Revolutions
I was at the Grapevine offices on Friday
when someone called with an urgent
matter. The person asked to speak to
the editor, who was not in at the time, or
someone else “in authority”, such as the publisher,
who was also out of the office. I said I would be
happy to take a message.
It turned out I was speaking to Supreme Court
Attorney Dögg Pálsdóttir, whose client, she said,
had complaints about a certain Grapevine writer
who Dögg maintained was committing slander (or
rather a writer she thought probably was going to
write something slanderous).
She explained that the writer, who is Íris Er-
lingsdóttir by the way, had linked to her blog on
Eyjan.is a DV article regarding a bank officer who
had close ties to a company whose $3.5 million
loan Íslandsbanki allegedly had written off, and al-
though the DV article had been amended, she had
not made those corrections in her blog. Okay, fine.
So, what does this have to do with the Grapevine?
Well, she explained that Íris’s sister was mar-
ried to this particular client, and that client is
now the live-in partner of the bank official men-
tioned in the DV article. Íris, she maintained, had
"threatened" her client during the divorce, and she
has now been asking questions of Íslandsbanki
about the client’s girlfriend. That’s pretty vague,
but I have no intention of muddling myself in that
matter, of which I know nothing.
The thing is, Dögg then said, given these cir-
cumstances, she believes that Íris will write some-
thing on the matter, and she said “we’re sure that
nothing she says will be true if she writes any-
thing at all.” (By the way, isn't it slanderous to call
someone’s employer informing them that nothing
one of their writers writes can possibly be true?)
She said it's best that we are aware of this so that
we can avoid a situation necessitating legal action.
Now, I don’t know what you all think about
this, but I think this is disconcerting. Even if—
and I have no idea if this is the case—the client
and his attorney are correct, it’s a scary thing
when the media are silenced to avoid legal threats
made by a big time attorney. Were situations like
this one not problematic before Iceland’s October
2008 crash? Just a thought.
Slither Slander
What Happens When
Journalists Take Their Summer
Vacation?
Iceland | Statistics
The SIC Report reveals that roughly 80%
of news stories covering the three largest
banks in the two years leading up to the
crash were neutral rather than positive or
negative. The newspapers deserve some
applause for that. But, it’s sometimes
said that even if the media doesn’t tell
you what to think—it still tells you what to
think about. If you buy this idea that the
media determines which issues are im-
portant by covering some issues promi-
nently and others not so prominently,
then what good were these unbiased
reports about the banks if they were few
and far between?
If you look at this data, you see how
many articles Fréttablaðið, Morgunblaðið
and Viðskiptablaðið printed about finan-
cial institutions between January 2006
and August 2008. There are a few inter-
esting points to note. One point is that the
number of articles about financial insti-
tutions consistently drops in March and
doesn’t pick up until after the summer.
So, if you were a financial institution, and
you were going to pull a fast one on the
country, it would be wise to do it during
the summer.
Perhaps the more seasoned journal-
ists are on vacation and people are gen-
erally thinking about the weather and
other more light-hearted stuff rather
than business and heavy economics. An-
other point is that that even in the spring
and summer before the crash, cover-
age largely declined and remained low.
Shouldn’t we have seen a spike there?
Check out an interactive graph at www.data-
market.com (short link: www.url.is/440)
FACTS. INSIGHT. BEAUTY.
The CRAZY statistics come from our cool friends at DataMarket.
They've got an almost endless amount of sexy data, free for all, at www.datamarket.com.
Also check out www.grapevine.is/statistics for interactive graphs and other statistics!
ANNA ANdERSEN
PáLL HILMARSSON
I spent part of the weekend with
friends in a bar discussing the com-
ing revolution, which now is again
beginning to sound like a distinct
possibility. At some point, this might
have sounded like a boyhood dream.
But like all boyhood dreams, the re-
ality is not what one had hoped.
Last time around, January 2009, the
demands were quite clear, despite the
many groups and agendas involved. We
wanted elections, a new government,
former PM Davíð Oddsson to resign
from the Central Bank and the head of
the Financial Supervisory Authority to
resign. This all came about, but some-
how no one is quite happy with the re-
sults. Davíð Oddsson is now editor of
Morgunblaðið, instead of subsiding off
his considerable pension. And no one
seems to like the new government very
much. Where did it all go wrong?
COLd WAR POLITICS AGAIN
Part of the government's problems lie in
some of its successes. The first real left
wing government in Icelandic history
did not go in for radical social change.
Instead, they went ahead with the IMF’s
demands for severe welfare cuts and
have been rebuilding the economy in
the direction of its pre-boom/bust level.
This has been painful but largely suc-
cessful. The economy is starting to grow
again and the depression has been far
less severe than many dreaded. There
is little doubt that Minister of Finance
Steingrímur J. Sigfússon is very capable,
which is a welcome change from the
excesses of the Independence Party.
All these initiatives should endear them
to conservative voters, who suppos-
edly vote with their wallets. However,
to those same voters, the Left-Greens
will always be a gang of communists,
no matter how fiscally responsible they
prove themselves to be, and the coali-
tion Alliance Party little better.
WHy IS EVERyONE uNHAPPy?
Meanwhile, the government has man-
aged to alienate most of the left with
precisely the lack of social change that
many had hoped for. Increasing GNP
matters little to those on the left when
there is little prospect for social justice.
Many of those responsible for the col-
lapse have had their huge debts written
off, while common folks with far smaller
debt face the prospect of being carried
out of their houses. There has been
very little restructuring of ownership
of breaking up of the monopolies that
led to disaster. This is probably one of
the reasons why prices keep going up,
even though the króna is stronger now
than it has been at any time since the
collapse. To make matters worse, the
Social Democratic Alliance, already tar-
nished by its place in government along
with the IP during the collapse, brazenly
protected its own members from indict-
ment by a national tribunal.
THE POINT Of THE PROTESTS
All this leads to the very Weimar-like
situation of a Social-Democratic gov-
ernment under siege by both Left and
Right. Small wonder, then, that the
aim of the protests sometimes seems
unclear. But the protesters still have a
very good point. As the possibility for
any kind of justice seems to be slipping
away, the anger is not unfounded. It
may even be healthier for society than
complete apathy, which is likely the next
stage if nothing is done.
Many people, understandably, are
afraid of eviction. Others demand new
elections (yearly elections were an-
other late-Weimar staple), although it is
not certain this would improve matters
much. But probably everyone can agree
that we really need to see those respon-
sible for this whole mess brought to ac-
count. Without, there is really is reason
to fear that all hell will break loose.
Is There a Revolution Brewing?
VALuR GuNNARSSON
JOSEPH HENRy VON RITTER
Number of news items and articles on financial institutions 2006 - 2008
Source: Creditinfo and DataMarket
200
300
400
500
600
700
2008
Aug-Oct
2008
Apr-Jul
2008
Jan-Mar
2007
Nov-Dec
2007
Aug-Oct
2007
Apr-Jul
2007
Jan-Mar
2006
Nov-Dec
2006
Aug-Oct
2006
Apr-Jul
2006
Jan-Mar
Viðskiptablaðið
Morgunblaðið
Fréttablaðið