Jul 31 2007

Icelandic Media Lie that No SI Prisoner is Being Held

Updated: August 2nd
M.R. has been released having taken her sentence out in full. This leaves two more activists to do stints in prison in August. One for eighteen days and the other for four days.
The newspaper Frettabladid claimed on the 1st of August that M.R. had been imprisoned for “something else” than protesting against the heavy industry policy. The source for this was the Icelandic police, again. It seems that certain Icelandic news departments are just incapable of telling the truth. Miriam R. was imprisoned for eight days because of her protest against ALCOA in 2006.

It is obvious from this that the Icelandic media are at pains to hide the fact that the Icelandic State is imprisoning protesters against the heavy industry policy of the Icelandic government.
This is also the case with the Icelandic Embassy in London. When approached by members of the Green Party in the UK embassy officials claimed that no one was in prison in Iceland because of their political beliefs.

Saving Iceland
31 July 2007

Both National Broadcaster RUV and TV station Stod 2 claim that no SI prisoner is being held. Both news departments quote the police as a source for this.

This is typical of the kind of massaging of the truth that both the Icelandic police and media are used to getting away with.

Miriam R. has been imprisoned for eight days in Hegningarhusid, Skolavordustig, 101 Reykjavik. She is 23 years old and is being held in a male prison.(1)

It is easy for the police to say that they do not know of any SI people that are in prison. Miriam R. is not in their charge. The prison Hegningarhusid falls under the Icelandic State Prison Authority (Fangelsismalastofnun.)

What a convenient amnesia about the structure of the Icelandic legal system! Yet again, the Icelandic media have not done their homework.

Dullness and deceit seem to be the prerequisite for a job in the Icelandic media.

1. – ‘State Harassment of Saving Iceland Activists’ /?p=892

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