Iceland review - 2016, Qupperneq 75

ICELAND REVIEW 73
consideration for a long time, such as
some changes to the defamation laws, but
so far the major impact has been sym-
bolic. An initiative like this can of course
inspire people and hopefully does so.
How does the media system in Iceland
differ from that in the other Nordic
countries?
[It differs] particularly with respect
to government support. In the other
Nordic countries there’s a long tradition
of press support, with ad-free public
broadcasting and media considered a
universal public good. In Iceland, the
extent of government support for the
media is for all intents and purposes
limited to the operation of the National
Broadcasting Service, RÚV, with one TV
channel, two radio channels and a news
website. Thus, all media in Iceland,
apart from RÚV, are entirely based on
commercial grounds. In addition, RÚV
not only competes with private media
for audiences but also competes on the
advertising market and relies heavily on
advertising revenue for its operation.
Thus, the commercial nature and
competition in the media market in
Iceland deviates somewhat from the
Nordic model, but still there’s consid-
erable plurality and alternative cover-
age both in print and broadcast media,
with two major national daily newspa-
pers, some national and local weekly
newspapers and a number of television
and radio channels, in addition to the
state-owned public service radio and
television. Although there are a number
of important media firms operating,
Icelandic private media are dominated
by two corporations [Árvakur and 365
Media].
What regional media exist, or is most
news produced in Reykjavík?
The regional media consist of some twen-
ty local newspapers scattered through-
out the country, some are subscription
papers and others free, but although
research shows that these media are
important for community integration
and local awareness, most of them are
economically weak and fragile when it
comes to editorial independence vis-à-
vis local powerful stakeholders. There’s
one local TV station running in Akureyri
but it’s mainly concerned with human
interest stories, which are important,
but it does not engage in critical news
coverage.
M E D I A