Birgitta Jónsdóttir

This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Birgitta.
Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office
2009[1]
Parliamentary group chairman
Personal details
Born 17 April 1967
Reykjavík, Iceland
Political party Citizens Movement (2009–2013)
Pirate Party (2013–present)

Birgitta Jónsdóttir (born 17 April 1967) is a politician (poetician) and an activist member of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, formerly representing the Citizens' Movement whom she co-founded in the wake of the Icelandic financial crisis and The Movement, but now representing the Pirate Party.[1][2] Her district was the Reykjavik Constituency South.[1] for the Civic Movement but the South West for the Pirate Party. She was elected to the Icelandic parliament in April 2009 on behalf of a movement aiming for democratic reform beyond party politics of left and right. Birgitta has been an activist and a spokesperson for various groups, such as WikiLeaks,[3] Saving Iceland and Friends of Tibet in Iceland. She also co-founded International Modern Media Institute with a group of 21st legislative transformation enthusiasts and experts. She is currently serving as a chairman of the Board of the International Modern Media Institute.[4][5]

Life and career

Birgitta Jónsdóttir at the Berlin-based re:publica 2013 conference: "Iceland could have been innovative: Participatory democracy."

Born in Reykjavík to Bergþóra Árnadóttir and Jón Ólafsson, Birgitta is also a poet, writer, artist, editor, publisher, and activist, and has used the internet for these activities. Her first poetry collection was published by Iceland's biggest publisher, Almenna Bókafélagið (AB books) in 1989. Birgitta organized Art against war, where a number of Icelandic artists and poets came out to protest the Iraq War. She set up the first Icelandic online art gallery in 1996 for the Apple Shop. Birgitta has participated in several international projects related to writing and activism including "Poets Against the War, Dialogue among Nations through Poetry, and Poets for Human Rights. She also edited and published the The World Healing Book and The Book of Hope, which contain writings by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove, the Dalai Lama, Rabbi Michael Lerner, John Kinsella, and Sigur Rós. Birgitta is a founder of Beyond Borders Press and Radical Creations. She is also a part of the International Network of Parliamentarians for Tibet (INPaT).

Press freedom initiatives

Birgitta was an active volunteer for Wikileaks and had an important role in the making of the Collateral Murder video, including co-production.[6] She has advocated to make Iceland a haven for press freedom and was the chief sponsor of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative.[7][8][9][10]

Wikinews has related news: ACLU, EFF challenging US 'secret' court orders seeking Twitter data

On 7 January 2011, Birgitta announced on her Twitter page that she had been notified by Twitter that it had been served by the United States Department of Justice with a subpoena demanding information "about all my tweets and more since November 1st 2009."[11] According to Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com:

The information demanded by the DOJ is sweeping in scope. It includes all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records and session times, all IP addresses used to access Twitter, all known email accounts, as well as the "means and source of payment," including banking records and credit cards. It seeks all of that information for the period beginning November 1, 2009, through the present.[11]

On 14 April 2011 Wired published an article "WikiLeaks Associates Hit Back Over U.S. Twitter Records Demand" describing a "contentious legal battle with the Justice Department" which included the three Wikileaks volunteers charging in a court filing that the government’s argument “trivializes both the Parties’ and the public’s constitutional rights.”[12]

On September 30, 2012 Birgitta joined the advisor board of LJost, an Icelandic whistleblowing initiative run by the Associated Whistleblowing Press and based on the GlobaLeaks platform.

Parliamentary Committees for the Movement

Parliamentary Committees for the Pirate Party

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Birgitta Jónsdóttir". Althing. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  2. ↑ Siek, Stephanie (17 June 2010). "New law aims to make Iceland a haven for press freedom". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  3. ↑ Shenon, Philip (18 June 2010). "WikiLeaks Hired Lawyers for Leaker". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  4. ↑ Greenberg, Andy. "Icelandic Legislator: I'm Ready To Help NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Seek Asylum". Forbes. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Birgitta Jónsdóttir". The Guaridan. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest of Alleged Leaker of Video Showing Iraq Killings, Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on Whistleblowers of Classified Information". Democracy Now!. 17 June 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  7. ↑ Mackey, Robert (17 June 2010). "Victory for WikiLeaks in Iceland’s Parliament". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  8. ↑ Khatchadourian, Raffi (7 June 2010). "No Secrets". The New Yorker. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  9. ↑ IMMI Principal Endorsers
  10. ↑ IMMI Contact
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Greenwald, Glenn (7 January 2011). "DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks volunteers". Salon.com. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  12. ↑ Poulson, Kevin (14 April 2011). "WikiLeaks Associates Hit Back Over U.S. Twitter Records Demand". Wired. Retrieved 14 April 2011.

External links