The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, an effort that grew out of Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008, was passed by Parliament in 2010. Iceland was one of the hardest-hit countries in the world when the financial crisis happened and they're serious about ensuring that it doesn't happen again. The failure of journalists to properly investigate the sudden boom is considered a key factor in the collapse. The initiative, shepherded by the Icelandic Modern Media Institute (IMMI) aims to make Iceland the safest country in the world for journalists. IMMI seeks to collect and enact the world’s best free speech and privacy laws and thereby ensure that Iceland becomes a bastion of free speech in an era where surveillance runs rampant worldwide.

There is a growing sentiment that the cyberutopian dream has failed. The idea of an internet that transcends physical boundaries and limitations and thus creates a free world where code is law and not the silly work of corrupt politicking; well, that ship has sailed. Professional and citizen journalists in Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnam, and Azerbaijan and elsewhere in the world, have been arrested for violating local laws that would cause most citizens in Europe and North America to balk. Meanwhile, the West cannot point fingers. With Barrett Brown serving prison time for sharing a link, Edward Snowden stuck in Russia for exposing systemic violations of the US Constitution, and Chelsea Manning being tortured and held in solitary confinement for whistleblowing war crimes. As journalism continues to be one of the world's most dangerous professions, Internet access and publication of information remain begrudgingly tied to local culture and practice regarding the lawful scope of free speech. And Iceland is entrenched in an issue that matters for all who wish to speak truth to power.

The Switzerland of Bits

Just as Snowden had to flee his country for one that guaranteed his safety, IMMI wants Iceland to become a safe haven for information and those who report on it. As John Perry Barlow, a prominent activist and one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it, Iceland could become, the “Switzerland of Bits.”