Thanks to all who participated in the May 22 Conference - the speakers, delegates and helpers. It was a great day and although unfortunately speaker Kathleen Murray had to pull out at the last minute a more than able replacement was found in Hootananny proprietor Kit Fraser, whose Joy of Talk concept looks set to revolutionise the restaurant market (first project set to launch in Inverness in September 2010).
Here is what keynote speaker Birgitta Jónsdóttir had to say after the event in an email dated 7 July 2010:
"Dear all of you from the Vital Message Conference
We are given an incredible opportunity to help co-create where we are heading as humanity
all of us who are awake and aware of the big picture need to step forward and create links between like minded people in our communities - the 21st century will be the century of the common people - change will occur from the bottom to top
the Vital Message Conference was one of those steps of co-creation
it was a gathering of people who are ready to move beyond the ego sutra of the west into responsibility to guide those who are seeking guidance without letting
ego get in the way
we are only great internally if we manage to be great externally
that is how we relate to others and what we are willing to give back to this earth
because we are running out of planet
this week i saw a film that i feel an urge to share with everyone, it is called For the Love of Water: flow.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAdA6FIODyY&feature=player_embedded
right now civil unrest is occurring in Iceland again - noise protests and growing anger and i will have to focus my energies here to try to get us out of the shadow of the IMF
I did somehow manage to get IMMI through the Icelandic parliament - everything conspired to push this through:) a pure miracle in action
here is the press release about that:
On June 16th the Icelandic Parliament unanimously passed a proposal tasking the government to introduce a new legislative regime to protect and strengthen modern freedom of expression, and the free flow of information in Iceland and around the world. The unanimous vote included all government members.
Birgitta Jonsdottir, the chief sponsor in parliament of the IMMI proposal said: "Iceland will become the inverse of a tax haven; by offering journalists and
publishers some of the most powerful protections for free speech and investigative journalism in the world. Tax havens aim is to make everything opaque. Our
aim it to make everything transparent." she said.
Highlights from the proposal:
* the Icelandic Prize for Freedom of Expression
* Protection from "libel tourism" and other extrajudicial abuses
* Protection of intermediaries (internet service providers)
* Statute of limitations on publishing liabilities
* Virtual limited liability companies
* Whistle-blower protections
* Source protection
* Source-journalist communications protection
* Limiting prior restraint
* Process protections
* Ultra-modern Freedom of Information Act
Because of the complexity of the legislative changes required, the final legislation will not pass through Parliament at the same date, at least 13 laws need to b e changed and improved in 4 ministries. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture that will have an over all responsibility of implementing the laws.
Estimated time for the entire IMMI package to be completed is about a year. The creators of the IMMI hope by Iceland's bold steps in the direction of creating a haven for freedom of information, speech and expression, that it will inspire other nations to follow suit by strengthening their own laws in favor of the fundamental cornerstones that are the base of democracies and thwart the trending of gagging, legal harassment and destruction of historical records.
This proposal was created by international collaboration of lawyers and organizations such as Wikileaks, who have a comprehensive understanding about how the current status of affairs are in our world in regard of serious attacks on freedom of information and expression.
The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative is based on turning the tax-haven concept on its head. Instead of pulling together asset hiding and secrecy laws from around the world in order to shelter corruption and financial crime, the IMMI pulls together the best transparency enabling legislation, to create a stronghold for investigative journalists, internet publishers, transparency watchdogs and the public.
The global support for the IMMI underlines the need for a robust environment that supports the world's best journalism and the activities of transparency groups. The flow of information has no borders and most of the media is moving to the internet. That is why the time has come for a modern legislative regime that can promote and defend global freedom of expression, in principle and in practice.
For details of the proposal and press contacts, please see
http://www.immi.is/
THANK you all for being who you are, and thank you DAVE for gathering people together because it is in that energy of gathering that great ideas manifest
LOVE and JOY to you all
Birgitta"
And thank you Birgitta! (please come back to speak at The Vital Message Conference 2011)
