Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2012, Page 16

16
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2012
Media | Blowing the whistle
A media organisation called Asso-
ciated Whistle-blowing Press has
just launched a site called Ljost.is
(ljóst is Icelandic for “clear” or “il-
luminated”). Its objectives are sim-
ilar to those of WikiLeaks, but Ljóst
aims to go a step further, playing a
greater role in the analysis of docu-
ments and denouncing wrongdo-
ing.
The founders are a couple of
journalists from South America—
Pedro Noel and Santiago Carrion—
who previously wrote for WikiLeak-
scentral.org before defecting to
start their own media organisation
in Iceland with the help of internet
pioneer and former International
Modern Media Institute (IMMI)
board member Guðmundur Ragnar
Guðmundsson.
Pedro tells me more about it
over a cup of coffee at a downtown
café not far from the Grapevine of-
fices.
A RIFT WITH
WIKILEAKS CENTRAL
Tell me more about yourselves.
How did you get into this?
When we came up with the idea in
December 2011, we had been work-
ing as journalists in Spain, writing for
WikiLeaks Central, analysing docu-
ments, covering the Arab Spring and
movements in Spain as well.
WikiLeaks Central was created at
the end of 2010 when rumours surfaced
that Sweden was preparing an attack
on Julian [Assange]. The idea was that
WikiLeaks would create its own news
portal to balance reports, giving more
first-hand accounts. But it soon grew
into something bigger than expected—
we started analysing cables, denounc-
ing wrongdoing, covering uprisings,
talking about human rights—and for a
year and half it worked very nicely like
this.
At some point though, the editorial
policy changed. A decision was made
to only cover news about WikiLeaks
and Julian Assange. But we didn’t want
to be there simply as fans saying that
WikiLeaks was cool and that Julian As-
sange was cool and that he was not a
rapist.
Why didn’t they want to have
you writing stories about the
documents that they were
releasing?
That was precisely our question,
which is why we decided to create this
new project.
We think that acquiring material and
analysing and publishing it should go
together. We don’t know why WikiLeaks
made the decision to give documents to
mainstream media and rely on them to
publish stories.
Right, certain media were hand-
picked…
Yeah in the beginning with the ca-
bles there were just four media outlets—
The Guardian, The Times, Le Monde, El
País in Spain. It was a journalistic deci-
sion that we don’t agree with.
Why not?
It’s wrong because mainstream me-
dia have political and economic agen-
das. We are doing this as volunteers
and our beliefs go strictly against these
agendas.
LJÓST VS. WIKILEAKS
How will Ljóst be different than
WikiLeaks then?
I think there are three things. First,
we are going to build teams to analyse
the documents, which means recruit-
ing journalists, some that were already
analysing WikiLeaks cables. Second,
we are also going to partner with media
organisations, but not exclusively, as
WikiLeaks did. Third, we are going to
focus more on local communities.
So its objective is largely the same,
but we want to go one step further to
denounce wrongdoing, crimes and cor-
ruption. If you think about the latest
releases from WikiLeaks, they weren’t
really denouncing wrongdoing. There
were no real cases of corruption in
the State Department cables; the files
simply explained the structure and lo-
gistics of how something works. It was
the same with the Stratfor release; they
revealed how something works.
You’re not really interested in
those documents?
We are open to receiving those
kinds of documents as well, but we
want to incentivise people to denounce
wrongdoing. Like we say here [reads
from mission statement], we only ac-
cept restricted or censored material of
political, scientific, ethical, diplomatic
or historical significance. Rumour,
opinion, stories and other kinds of
firsthand accounts or material that is
publicly available elsewhere will not be
accepted.
So if it’s relevant to public interest,
we will receive it. But we want to incen-
tivise people to denounce corruption,
crime, and wrongdoing.
THE ICELAND CONNECTION
I find it curious that you came to
Iceland. You mentioned as we
were walking over here that you
feel it’s safe here...
Simply because of IMMI.
But IMMI doesn’t REALLY exist.
Yet.
…Yet.
Even though IMMI hasn’t imple-
mented all of the legal changes that it
would like to implement—changing 16
laws—it is making progress, succeed-
ing, for instance, in getting source
protection. That has been totally im-
plemented. But if you think about the
whole world, Iceland is the safest place.
How do you see it working in
Iceland’s tightly knit society?
First, I think there is a tendency here
to adopt innovative things, as Iceland
became world-renowned for its revolu-
tion. I think Icelanders are proud of this,
to have done things that other coun-
tries only wanted to do.
Second, as Iceland is small, power
is concentrated in the hands of a few
people who often times wear multiple
hats. This may be a bad thing, because
it can be easy to find out who leaked
information, but it can also be a good
thing, as it means that there are people
out there who have access to relevant
information.
Give me an example of what
somebody might submit here in
Reykjavík.
Suppose that the owners of this café
aren’t paying taxes or they are putting
them in somebody else’s name. Some-
body who works here, who has access
to this information, could scan those
documents and send them to this plat-
form, proving that the café is washing
money or evading taxes. And this can
be applied to private and government
institutions.
What kinds of documents do
you think you’ll see most? What
do you think is most corrupt
today?
I would really like information about
the aluminium companies. I think this
may be most important. But I would
also like to see diplomatic documents
and inside communication from the
government proving malpractice, cor-
ruption or wrongdoing. I would person-
ally find that most interesting. But it’s
not right to want big leaks. Every leak is
important if it denounces wrongdoing.
Shine A Light A new whistle-blowing site aims to uncover
corruption in Icelandic society
Words by Anna Andersen @nnaandersen Photo by Simon Steel
Go check this out at http://associated.whistle.is/!
Their Mission Statement
What is it?
Ljost.is will be a citizen whistle-
blowing platform destined to open for
the Icelandic public. Through this plat-
form, any person will be able to submit
documents reporting wrongdoing,
crimes and abuses (both in private and
governmental field) in an anonymous
way.
Why are they doing it?
The main goal of the Associated
Whistle-blowing Press is to generate
social awareness about problems that
are normally hidden from the public,
hoping that concrete action to solve
them will follow. We believe in the
traditional idea, lately forgotten, that
media must be an active player in cor-
rectly informing the population about
relevant facts.
They believe a transparent and
free f low of information is something
essential for self governance. They
believe that citizens have the right to
know what their political and economi-
cal leaders are doing that directly or
indirectly affect them.
For journalists, researchers and
media activists, this is a very power-
ful way to lead people to take action
against repression, oppression, brutal-
ity, censorship, social inequality and
corporate greed in every society of this
planet.
What kind of documents will they
accept?
The AWP only accepts restricted or
censored material of political, scien-
tific, ethical, diplomatic or historical
significance. Rumour, opinion, stories
and other kinds of firsthand accounts
or material that is publicly available
elsewhere will not be accepted. Materi-
als that violate individual privacy will
not be accepted unless they speak up
on violations and abuses that affect the
public sphere.
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