Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2015, Blaðsíða 6

6
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 20116
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2015
Her devoted archival efforts, it could
be argued, amount to the sort of foun-
dational journalism that few modern
reporters can afford time and energy to
engage in—and she does it all of her own
accord, never earning a króna for it.
We spoke with Lára Hanna to learn
more about what drives her.
We forget
How did this all get started?
I started blogging in November 2007,
to fight against the building of a geo-
thermal plant up in Hellisheiði, where
they were going to effectively destroy
an absolutely beautiful area in Iceland.
I posted interviews with specialists and
all kinds of people who weighed in on
the environmental impact of the plant
on the area. Then in March 2008, I be-
lieve, I began to record material off of
television.
What sources do you collect and
archive?
I record all the news. I archive the noon
and evening news from RÚV radio and
TV, Stöð 2, [media roundtable discussion
shows] Silfur Egils, Kastljós and Ísland í
dag, and a lot of others.
Why do you do it?
Memory. I had grown increasingly
frustrated with other people's—and my
own—lack of memory. We forget what a
politician said, and they get away with it
when they contradict themselves. Vid-
eos are the most effective medium for
showing people what a politician said,
followed by hearing it, and then reading
it. To read what someone said a number
of years ago is one thing; it's totally dif-
ferent when you see them on video say-
ing it.
Why take politicians at
their word?
What is perhaps the biggest
example of doublespeak or con-
tradiction you've uncovered?
Oh, that's hard to say! The President
[Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson] comes to
mind. He's selling Iceland abroad as a
country that uses completely clean and
renewable energy, and that's just not
true. [Geochemist] Stefán Arnórsson
has been saying since before 2007 that
it's neither renewable nor clean. Also,
the way former Left-Green chairperson
Steingrímur J. Sigfússon completely
changed his position about heavy indus-
try once his party got into power. I com-
piled news clips from 2007, 2009 and
2013 into a single video to point out how
he's contradicted himself there.
Sounds like you're doing the work
of a journalist.
The thing is, when a politician says, “Oh,
I never said that,” you can find out if they
did or did not. I think that's missing in
the Icelandic media. The fact-checking,
digging through video archives, instead
of taking politicians at their word. The
media began to do this sort of work a
little bit shortly after the 2008 crash, but
they hardly do it anymore—or far too
rarely.
Strange freak bird
Seeing how many people in power
you've called out, and how much
attention it gets on social media,
I guess it's unsurprising that they
would react to you.
I suppose not. [Conservative ideo-
logue] Hannes Hólmsteinn called me
a “furðufugl” [an old fashioned word
meaning “strange bird”] once. [Laughs]
And then there's [Progressive MP] Vig-
dís Hauksdóttir, who recently called me
a “freak.”
Yeah, what set her off?
I got one of these “on this day” buttons
on my Facebook timeline, and one post
was about Vigdís; about how she abuses
power, saying things she can't back up
with facts, and accusing our national
broadcasting of having a political agen-
da. So when I shared this two-year-old
“on this day” post, I basically just added
“every word of this is still true.” And she
didn't like that. But when I heard what
she called me, I just laughed.
You mentioned earlier that
Icelandic journalists were do-
ing their digging on politicians
shortly after the crash, but then
not anymore. Why do you think
they stopped?
Maybe they don't have the time, or
they aren't given the time. Many of the
more experienced ones are gone—ei-
ther sacked or retired. You also have
to have a pretty good sense of when
something happened. I've spent three
hours sometimes, digging through my
own archives, just trying to find a single
sentence someone uttered. But I should
point out that some news sources—such
as Kjarninn and Stundin, for example—
are doing more of this, by linking to
older news.
So where do you see yourself
going with all this? You're doing
a journalist's job, or doing the job
for other journalists, for free.
Could you see yourself joining up
with a media outlet?
I doubt I could work as a journalist. I'm
more the columnist type. I also have two
websites, www.larahanna.is and www.
malfrelsi.is. I bought the first one the
day [former Independence Party chair-
person] Davíð Oddsson became editor
of Morgunblaðið. I might set up a blog
on either site. Facebook disappears. You
can't search for things on it. I want other
people to be able to access my posts for
years to come.
Words by Paul Fontaine
Photos by Internet
Lára Hanna Einarsdóttir is not a journalist. In fact, the
closest she's come to journalism is doing subtitles for Stöð
2, a job she's had since 1987. Yet, she has for a almost a
decade now proved an important media resource for the
people of Iceland, providing necessary context and infor-
mation at crucial times, which corresponds awfully well to
the role we ascribe to journalists. She does this by spend-
ing untold amounts of time diligently archiving numerous
Icelandic media sources—primarily TV and radio—which
she then digs up and uses to call out politicians and people
in power when they contradict themselves or flat-out lie.
For The Sake Of Memory:
An Interview With Arch-Archivist
Lára Hanna Einarsdóttir
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They
Like
Lára!
We reached out to a few people in the
news business to get their thoughts on
Lára Hanna and her work. Here's what
they had to say:
"Lára Hanna has the collective memory
of our society on her computer, as well
as justice and wisdom in everything she
writes."
Guðmundur Andri, writer and
columnist
"Lára Hanna is a great example of how
one person can accomplish a lot. She
stands by the environment and human
rights. There is no one more noble. She
also makes sure to keep track of a wealth
of news, and reminds us of the context
that is missing. Every nation should
have their own Lára Hanna."
Heiða B. Heiðarsdóttir, co-
founder of Stundin
In my mind, Lára Hanna is first and
foremost a powerful social critic and
journalist. She surpasses most of us in
her ability to find, gather and contex-
tualize information. Her work is very
commendable, even though some will
inevitably loathe the fact that records
are being kept of their words and ac-
tions.
Helgi Seljan, journalist at
Kastljós