(Reuters)

In his interview from Hong Kong this weekend, NSA-leaker Edward Snowden floated the idea of heading to Iceland to seek asylum.

"My predisposition is to seek asylum in a country with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland. They stood up for people over internet freedom," Snowden told The Guardian.

To followers of world-news oddities, the destination may have sounded familiar -- it's also the original base of Wikileaks and the adoptive home of chess-prodigy-turned-outlaw Bobby Fischer (until his death in 2008).

Indeed, wherever there's a renegade whistleblower, a party named for Pirates, or a swan-shaped dress, the eccentric island nation is not far behind.

So how did Iceland get its reputation for sticking it to the man?

The economic calamity of 2008 had a lot to do with it. The government was accused of mismanaging the country's finances, causing a sharp rise in anti-authoritarianism and calls for transparency, according to the AP.

In part because of the important role journalists played in uncovering the disaster, in 2010 Iceland passed a so-called "journalism haven" statute -- considered one of the most media-friendly laws anywhere -- which ratcheted up protection for anonymous sources and made it much harder to censor stories. The measure was lobbied for by Wikileaks, and it was so strong that several foreign news organizations considered relocating their investigative desks there.