Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.02.2019, Blaðsíða 14

14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2019
Bára Halldórsdóttir, a queer disabled
woman who has long advocated for
the rights of the chronically ill, found
herself in the spotlight last November
when it was revealed she had recorded
the six parliamentarians implicated
in the so-called Klausturgate scandal,
subsequently sending the recordings
to the media. Since then, four of the
MPs have tried, without success, to
silence her through the court system.
No matter what vitriol these MPs and
their supporters may send her way—
and to be fair, she says the overwhelm-
ing response directed her way has been
support—she remains unflappable. In
fact, the entire affair happened by pure
chance.
"I don't remember having a moment
where I decided I needed to get my
phone out and start recording,” said
Bára. “It just kind of happened. I knew
they were politicians, being quite rude
and quite loud. In that moment of disbe-
lief I thought, 'I have to let my wife hear
this when she gets home.' So I started
recording. But then it started getting
uglier and uglier, so I stayed."
Leaving it to the
professionals
Bára knew that at least some of the
things she recorded were possibly
newsworthy, but felt it would be wise to
send copies of the recordings to media
outlets she trusted, for them to decide,
rather than upload the entire thing to
Soundcloud and put the MPs on blast.
"At some point in the conversation, I
realised they were talking about things
that were official stuff,” she recount. “I
couldn’t always hear clearly what they
were saying, nor knew who everyone
in the conversation was. That's when I
started thinking that I needed to get this
to somebody. I wasn't sure, and I didn't
really know, how to work with the stuff
in the recording, and didn't have the
energy to go through all of it, either. I
kind of just knew [my media contacts]
would know what was news and what
wasn't; what
you're allowed
t o p u b l i s h
and what not.
I t t o o k m e
about three or
four days to
decide."
Bára spec-
ulated that
Centre Party
MP Gunnar
Bragi Sveins-
son’s drunken
b r a g g i n g
about a possi-
ble quid pro
quo deal for an
ambassador-
ship would be
the only news-
worthy thing
to come out of
these recordings, but the MPs’ abusive
language about female colleagues also
made headlines. Even so, Bára says that
many of the articles written about the
recordings “came out of the blue” to her.
All “apologies”
The irony of some of the parliamentar-
ians involved issuing apologies but then
taking her to court isn’t lost on Bára.
"I think it definitely casts a shadow
on their apologies,” she says. “You don't
just say, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, and by the way,
I'm going to go after the disabled woman
who recorded me.' It feels very insincere
that they'd go through that process. It's
a strange thing. Maybe they're making
a point so that other people won't be so
willing to record them or maybe they
just really do
t h i n k t h a t
they have been
w r o n g e d .
Maybe they're
trying to say,
' i f y o u d o
s o m e t h i n g
like this, we'll
come for you,’
but I don't
know."
S h e a l s o
d i s m i s s e s
s o m e o f
t h e w i l d e r
c o n s p i r a c y
theories that
some of these
MPs have put
forward, such
as the idea
that she coor-
dinated the entire thing as a kind of
sting operation.
"People have pointed out that it's
kind of impossible that I could have
planned this,” she says. “It just doesn't
work that way that I'd think, 'A ha! At
that point in time, they will be saying
horrible things and I shall be recording
them!' I do not have such powers—even
though I do read Tarot cards for Rauða
skáldahúsið—I'm not that powerful that
I can induce people to speak at my will.
I'd be very rich if I were that good."
Is this who we are?
One of the more common responses
to some of the things revealed in the
recordings is that none of this should be
surprising; that the politicians involved
probably say even worse things in
private. Bára believes this raises ques-
tions that Icelanders need to ask them-
selves.
"Is that a nice thing? Are we really
happy about that happening?,” Bára tells
us. “That's basically what this is about.
That this is the way they talk behind
closed doors, and do we like that? We
have to have a few cases of these people
doing things wrong, so that we can
recalibrate."
What we can learn
Ultimately, Bára hopes that the case
doesn’t just become some flash-in-
the-pan scandal; she hopes that it will
lead to real material change in Iceland’s
socio-political landscape.
"What I really would love to see is
one Icelandic politician say, 'I really
ruined things, so now I'm going to step
down and take some real responsibility
for once in my life,’” she says. “I would
also like to see this discussion continue,
because what I saw from this is a lot
of female strength and a lot of ally
strength, too. There are a lot of people
who finally got a voice, and who were
very strong in their responses. I like
that. I also hope that, in some way, this
makes clearer the rules about whistle-
blowers and informers in Iceland. My
interpretation of this whole case is
that there were public people talking
publicly in a public place, which makes
it OK to record and send it out. My inner
compass says this, if it's something that
has value for the national conversation,
which I think this has, it has both legal
and ethical ramifications that are very
important."
The Power Of
Accountability
An interview with whistleblower Bára Halldórsdóttir
Bára has become an Icelandic icon
Words:
Andie Fontaine
Photo:
Art Bicnick
“What I really would
love to see is one
Icelandic politician
say, 'I really ruined
things, so now I'm
going to step down,
and take some real
responsibility for
once in my life.'”