Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.09.2012, Qupperneq 10

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10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2012 The ever opinionated Snorri Páll just opened up a cool website for
his musings. Check him out at www.wheelofwork.org.
Days later, Icelanders braced themselves for what
seemed might turn into a Melan-
cholia-level event, albeit not be-
cause a rogue planet was believed
to be on its way to collide with the
Earth, but because
it seemed a
tropical storm
was headed to
Iceland. The
storm, Leslie,
originated in
the Caribbean and
swung its way up the east coast
of the US and Canada, before
veering northeast. All estimates
showed that Leslie would be at
tropical storm strength by the time
it reached Iceland. Fortunately,
however, that day came and went
with partially cloudy skies and mild
winds, and so Iceland was spared
destruction … for now.
Celebrity fever continued in Iceland, although Emma
Watson’s visit didn’t seem to garner
much media attention—until she re-
turned home. Speaking as a guest
on the Letterman show, she said
she found it baffling that Iceland-
ers would try to promote
tours to go see how
adorable whales
and puffins are,
only to follow
that up by serv-
ing said animals
to tourists for
dinner. The remarks
caused many to focus on Emma’s
perceived snobbery, all the while
ignoring David Letterman’s far
more offensive remarks about most
Icelanders being alcoholics. Maybe
people are just used to Letterman
being an ass, who knows?
In the tech world, it was reported that internet service
providers Vodafone and Síminn—
arguably Iceland’s two largest
ISPs—were considering blocking
access to porn and gambling sites
for “computer safety” reasons,
as these sites are sometimes rife
with malware, with an option for
customers to unblock their access
after the fact. The story sparked
outrage among many Icelanders,
in particular those close to issues
— Continued —
Continues over
Can an individual degrade a whole
nation or nation state? Apparently
the answer is “yes” as suggested by
the 95th clause of Iceland's crimi-
nal code: “Anyone who publicly de-
grades a foreign nation or a foreign
state, its top official, its head of
state, its flag or another authorised
national characteristic, the flag of
the United Nations or the flag of the
Council of Europe, is subjected to
penalty or imprisonment up to two
years.” Moreover, the law allows for
an imprisonment up to six years if
the violation is considered that se-
rious.

While this particular clause has not typ-
ically been a matter of discussion—as it
rarely comes up in courtrooms or pub-
lic debates—the Left Greens recently
put forth a resolution against it, arguing
that it is primeval and can be misused
to suppress freedom of speech.
The most recent incident
Their resolution comes shortly after
the law surfaced in Reykjavík this July.
During a relatively big demonstration
in protest of the imprisonment of three
members of the feminist collective
Pussy Riot, the Russian flag was taken
down from the Russian Embassy’s flag-
pole and juggled around by the crowd.
In front of that same embassy a month
later—more precisely on the day of the
Pussy Riot sentence—police made it
known that four individuals were under
investigation, accused of violating the
above-mentioned law.
Prior to this incident, the law was
last used in April 2009 when Czech citi-
zen Jan Jiricek was sentenced to pay a
250,000 ISK fine for his act of protest by
the Chinese Embassy in Reykjavík. Dur-
ing the trial, Jiricek, who painted the
embassy's stairs with red—an act sup-
ported by a written statement sent to
most of Iceland's media—denied having
disgraced the Chinese state and na-
tion, admitting only to have physically
opposed the Chinese authorities' treat-
ment of the Tibetan people. Yet his de-
fence didn't convince the judge who, in
his verdict, stated that Jan had clearly
degraded the Chinese state and nation.
The most infamous incident
The most famous—and at the same time
infamous—example of this law takes us
back to the year 1934 when five men,
one of them poet Steinn Steinarr, were
punished for degrading the German
state. The five communists had taken
down and trampled on the German
Nazi Party's swastika flag, which was
flapping by the German Vice-Consulate
in the northern town of Siglufjörður. For
this act they received two and three
months long prison sentences. Since
then, the 95th clause has been widely
referred to as the Nazi Clause.
Many recalled this story in 2002
when Iceland's Supreme Court sen-
tenced and fined three men for degrad-
ing the United States of America. In
opposition to the superpower's foreign
policy, one of them had prepared a Mo-
lotov cocktail—a rarely employed tool of
resistance in Iceland—that he threw at
the US Embassy in Reykjavík during a
short pause in the middle of their Fri-
day night pub-crawl. Four of five judges
found the three men guilty while the
fifth judge issued a special provision
of acquittal, maintaining that the men
were under influence of alcohol and
thus the Molotov's political message
was dismissed.
The most absurd incident
Finally, the most absurd event based
on the clause's existence took place
in 1993 when Þorsteinn Pálsson, then
Minister of Fisheries accused Bill Clin-
ton—during an argument between
Iceland and the US over the former
country's whaling—of having watched
too many mafia films. Seen by the lat-
ter state's authorities as a disgrace to
the US state and its nation, Þorsteinn
was heavily criticised for his words
and some wondered if he had, in fact,
violated the Nazi clause. The problem,
however, was that it falls under the
criminal code's chapter on treason, a
violation which will only be brought to
court on the behest of the Minister of
Justice. And at this time, the Ministry
of Justice was governed by that very
same Minister of Fisheries, Þorsteinn
Pálsson, who predictably didn't end up
pressing charges against himself.
Now, back to this summer's events
by the Russian Embassy, it will be up
to Ögmundur Jónasson, Minister of In-
terior, to decide if four individuals will
be brought to court for treason. Though
he certainly is not facing the same situ-
ation as Þorsteinn, Ögmundur never-
theless faces the fact that these four
people are all members of his very own
party, the Left Greens. Additionally, he
has officially criticised the sentencing
of Pussy Riot, saying to Iceland's Na-
tional Broadcasting Service RÚV that
despite not wanting to take a stand on
the feminists' conduct, the imprison-
ment should be discussed within the
international human rights debate—and
condemned. Whether Ögmundur heeds
his party's warning remains to be seen.
The Nazi Clause Strikes Again
A very short history of degradations
Words
Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson
Photo
German Federal Archive
Politics | Disrespect
“
The five communists had
taken down and trampled
on the German Nazi
Party's swastika f lag,
which was f lapping by the
German Vice-Consulate
in the northern town of
Siglufjörður.„
NEWS IN BRIEF
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EARLY SEPTEMBER