Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.03.2013, Blaðsíða 10

A record number
of tourists have
been traveling to
Iceland this win-
ter (to get their
fill of online porn
before the ban?)
and analysts at Arion Bank suspect
that, by 2015, tourists in Iceland will
outnumber residents three to one!
That’s 900,000 tourists per year!
That would be pretty super for the
economy and for all the business
folk itching to get rich by filling 101
with hotels. It might also be good
for the value of the króna, which
has grown 3% on the international
exchange market this month… but
then maybe a stronger króna would
deter more tourists from coming.
Nobody wants to spend more than
they have to for a stuffed puffin or
hilarious souvenir t-shirt.
That new consti-
tution has been
causing all kinds
of drama in Feb-
ruary. First all the
MP’s were like
“Let’s do this!
Discussions aplenty!” But then the
Venice Commission, the arm of the
Council of Europe responsible for
oversight of all constitutional mat-
ters, returned a lengthy list of notes
on the constitutional draft, leaving
some MP’s questioning whether
it would be possible to cobble to-
gether a half-decent constitution
before the clock runs out for this
current government (parliamenta-
ry elections are slated for 27 April).
And THEN Morgunblaðið posted
a possibly made up story saying
that the government was nixing the
whole thing, making the interwebs
ask “but what about democracy!?”
AND THEN Þór Saari, an MP for The
Movement, was all like “hey guys,
y’all are taking way too long get-
ting this new constitution together.
I say let’s do a little ‘vote of no con-
fidence’… not to slow things down
more, but you know. Because.”
To which the ruling coalition re-
plied “yeah, cool buddy, let’s do
it today.” Prompting Þór to be all
“woah, let’s not jump the gun, you
guys! If you’re going to be jerks
about it, then never mind. I’m tak-
ing my proposal and leaving.” And
the government continued discuss-
ing the constitution and the possi-
bility of getting it passed through
parliament before the end of this
term. Government! What a bunch
of drama queens!
But seriously, it would be a huge
achievement for the new constitu-
tion to be passed through parlia-
ment ahead of the elections, so
let’s all hope that that can happen.
Iceland deserves it.
- CATHARINE FULTON
– Continued –
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NEWS IN BRIEF
FEBRUARY
Iceland | Media
It’s an oldie but a goodie: Edward Herman and Noam
Chomsky’s propaganda model. The classic five-prong
explanation of how the media manipulates each and ev-
ery one of us and ‘manufactures consent’ for political,
economic and social policies via the stories is does and
does not offer for public consumption.
The gist of the model is that the media is a business
and, like a business, its number one concern is its own
bottom line. So rather than editorial content catering
strictly to informing you, dear reader, it serves almost
entirely to satisfy the wants and whims of owners, adver-
tisers and sources, to dish out flak and to instil fear. This
is the propaganda model in a confined nutshell.
And it was the first thing that came to mind when, on
the evening of February 8, Morgunblaðið ran an article
titled “Ekki ný stjórnaskrá” (“No New Constitution”)
stating that the government had decided not to go for-
ward with passing the new constitution through parlia-
ment.
The article, which ran less than 100 words and pro-
vided no detail explaining this development, led to im-
mediate public outrage expressed through social media
channels. People linking to the article on Facebook and
commenting on it lashed out at the coalition government
of the Social Democrats and Left-Greens, accusing them
of being anti-democratic for daring to take away the
prospect of a new constitution that had been voted for by
the people in a referendum just this past October.
Interestingly, this same headline—which would be
considered pretty big news—didn’t run on other me-
dia channels, RÚV, Vísir or DV. The entire weekend
passed and these other major news sources didn’t re-
port that the constitution had been canned. Did Mor-
gunblaðið get the mother of all scoops or could some-
thing else be at play here?
A LOVE AFFAIR FOR THE AGES
Almost since its establishment in 1913, Morgunblaðið
has been in bed with the conservative Independence
Party. So tight was the bond between the paper and
party that Morgunblaðið’s editors and reporters sat in
on Independence Party meetings until 1983. That year,
Geir Hallgrímsson, who was both chair of the board at
Árvakur, which purchased the paper in 1919, and the
chair of the Independence Party, put a stop to it, as the
romance looked bad for the paper and the Party.
Coincidentally, 1983 marked the beginning of the
fishing quota system in Iceland, which would eventu-
ally make a handful of people filthy rich by permitting
them to pre-sell or rent the rights to yet-to-be-caught
fish. The two largest shareholders of Árvakur are
Guðbjörg Magnea Matthíasdóttir and Þorsteinn Már
Baldvinsson who, through their other companies (Ísfé-
lag Vestmannaeja hf and Samherji hf, respectively), lay
claim to a total 7.6% of the nation's fishing quota.
As talks have been brewing over the years about
how unfair the quota system is and how badly it has
damaged small fishing communities around Iceland,
the Independence Party has remained staunchly against
changing the system and Morgunblaðið has maintained
a strictly pro-quota editorial policy. In fact, the Inde-
pendence Party voted at its national congress on Febru-
ary 24 to withdraw Iceland’s application for EU mem-
bership, partly because it would have an effect on the
existing quota system.
As if the Independence Party and Morgunblaðið
couldn’t be any more joined at the hip, in September
2009, Morgunblaðið’s fishing baron owners appointed
Davíð Oddsson as editor. For a quick rundown of his re-
sume: Davíð was Chair of the Independence Party from
1991 through 2005, Prime Minster of Iceland from 1991
through 2004, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to
2005, and Chair of the Central Bank in 2005 until being
ousted in 2009 after the economic collapse. He is the
godfather of the Independence Party, is said to still hold
great sway within the party, and has been named by in-
ternational media as one of the 25 people responsible
for the global collapse.
SEE FILTER #1: OWNERSHIP
So was Morgunblaðið ahead of the game when they
reported the death of the constitution? Well, it turned
out that the constitution was not dead. Talks were to
continue after the weekend, with leaders of the Social
Democrats and Left-Greens confirming their dedica-
tion to wrapping up the matter before the end of this
parliamentary session, including a detailed review
and discussion of the notes that had been submitted to
Alþingi from the Venice Commission, the constitution-
al advisory arm of the Council of Europe.
But it’s election season. The Independence Party
had been hinting toward a vote of no-confidence in the
coalition government of the Social Democrats and Left-
Greens for weeks (a proposition that was put forward on
21 February by an MP for the Progressive Party, which
is forever in coalition with the Independence Party), and
it’s in the best interest of Morgunblaðið’s owners, and
their peers in the world of business and fishing quotas,
for the current government to be seen as a failure and
for the Independence Party to take the helm once more.
And so a negative story was put out in the world to
fester over the weekend, to stir up negative public opin-
ion of the two political parties that the Independence
Party needs to best at the upcoming elections, and to
linger even after a string of MPs responded that the con-
stitutional talks were still a go.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
Consider the source. Not all news is propaganda, but it’s
not always as cut and dry as it seems, either.
Catharine Fulton is Grape-
vine's online news editor.
Consider The Source
How Iceland’s new constitution was canned for a weekend
Did Morgunblaðið get
the mother of all scoops
or could something else
be at play here?
“
„
Hörður Sveinsson
10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 3 — 2013