Birgitta Jónsdóttir (born 17 April 1967) is an Icelandic politician,

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

, poet, and activist. She was a Member of the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...

(MP) for the

Southwest Constituency Southwest ( is, Suðvestur) is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Reykjanes in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation ...

from 2013 to 2017, representing the

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties around the world. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free shari ...

, having been elected at the 2013 election. She was previously an MP for Reykjavík Constituency South from 2009 to 2013. In November 2017, she has announced to retire from politics "for now". She published her first book of poetry at the age of 22, and later became a web developer. She was a noted Icelandic activist, and took on a number of roles during the protests following the 2007–2008 financial crisis. She was first elected as an MP representing the Citizens' Movement in the 2009 election. Later in 2009, she left the Citizens' Movement and joined The Movement. She became involved with

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

during

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army int ...

's visit to Iceland in 2010, and helped to produce the

Collateral Murder On July 12, 2007, a series of air-to-ground attacks were conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad, during the Iraqi insurgency which followed the invasion of Iraq. On April 5, 2010, the atta ...

video. Following her time with WikiLeaks, she created the

International Modern Media Institute The International Modern Media Institute (IMMI) is an international institution with the aim of promoting debate about laws good for freedom of information, speech, and expression. The institute does this by offering advice and guidance in relat ...

, of which she became executive director in 2011. She was also involved in two court cases in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

during her parliamentary term, one of which was the high-profile case ''Hedges vs Obama''. In 2012, close to the end of her term, she co-founded the Icelandic

, becoming their first MP. In the 2013 election, Birgitta was elected as a Pirate Party MP, alongside two others. She served as Chairman of the Pirate Party from 2014 to 2015.

Early life

Birgitta was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

on 17 April 1967, the daughter of Icelandic folk singer Bergþóra Árnadóttir (1948–2007). Her father left the family when she was just a baby, and so she was adopted by her mother's new husband, shipowner and fisherman Jón Ólafsson (1940–1987). She completed her primary school education in 1983. Her first love, as a teenager, was

Jón Gnarr Jón Gnarr (; born 2 January 1967)This is an Icelandic name. ''Kristinsson'' is the patronymic, but he is properly referred to as ''Jón Gnarr'' as he had it legally removed. is an Icelandic actor, comedian, and politician who served as the Ma ...

, who went on to become

Mayor of Reykjavík The post of Mayor of Reykjavík ( is, Borgarstjóri Reykjavíkur) was created in 1907 and advertised in 1908. Páll Einarsson and Knud Zimsen applied for the job and Páll got the position for a period of six years, at the end of which he did not w ...

. They "took drugs together, read anarchist literature and planned to start an Icelandic branch of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

." Her adoptive father, Jón Ólafsson, committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

when she was 20 years old by walking into an icy river during a storm.

Poetry and activism

At the age of 20, her first book of poetry, ''Frostdinglar'', was published. From a young age, she sought to combine art and poetry, "by looking holistically at issues artists could bring new perspectives." Therefore, she styles herself as a 'poetician'. Her art has been exhibited on three different continents, she has performed at lectures and festivals around the world, and her work has been published in anthologies, newspapers, magazines, and on TV, radio and the internet. In 1995, her focus shifted to the internet, saying that "I dove into the internet and haven’t been out of there since." In 1996, she organised Iceland's first live stream using CU-SeeMe. In 2002, she edited two anthologies, ''The Book of Hope'' and ''The World Healing Book''. She is also a member of the (RSÍ), and the founder of Radical Creations and Beyond Borders Press. In an interview with ''Take Part'', Birgitta described how "after the financial collapse I was one of the very few people that was a known protester." She was therefore asked to coordinate various grassroots organisations and organised a large protest in December 2008. She later became a member of the Academia Group, which talked about what kind of government and constitution Iceland required.

First parliamentary term, 2009–2013

In the 2009 Iceland parliamentary election, Birgitta was elected as a Member of the

for Reykjavík Constituency South, representing the Citizens' Movement. Upon her election, she was appointed as a member of the

Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Affairs Committee may refer to: * Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development * Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs * European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs * F ...

, the Environment and Communications Committee, and the Icelandic delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Gerald E. Connolly from the United States, elected in 2019. Its curre ...

. Later, in 2009, she was also appointed as a member of the Parliamentary Review Committee of the SIC Report. On 14 August 2009,

Þráinn Bertelsson Þráinn Bertelsson (born 30 November 1944) is an Icelandic film director, writer, politician, journalist and newspaper editor. He moved into politics in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008, and was elected a member of the Althing in 2009, i ...

left the Citizens' Movement to sit as an Independent, and, on 18 September 2009, the remaining three MPs for the Citizens' Movement (Birgitta,

Margrét Tryggvadóttir Margrét Tryggvadóttir (born 20 March 1972 in Kópavogur) was a member of parliament of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament from 2009-2013 for The Movement and the Citizens' Movement. She was chair of the Movement in 2009–10. She is also ...

and

Þór Saari Þór Saari (born 9 June 1960) is a former member of parliament of Althing, the Icelandic parliament from 2009–13, representing The Movement. He was The Movement's chairman, a rotating post, from October 2010 to October 2011. He previously ...

) left the party to form their own parliamentary grouping, the Movement. In 2009, a court injunction prevented broadcasters talking about the recent leak of the details of

Kaupthing Bank Kaupthing Bank ( is, Kaupþing banki; ) was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic ...

's loansbook. Live on television, Bogi Ágústsson directed viewers to the

website to see for themselves. This created considerable popularity for WikiLeaks in Iceland, and, shortly after the incident,

visited Iceland. During his visit, Birgitta met with him and offered her help. It was agreed that Birgitta should be part of a team to help create a stronger set of free speech laws internationally and, particularly, in Iceland. Birgitta was also a producer of WikiLeaks'

video, released in 2010. The project for creating stronger free speech laws eventually became known as the International Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), which was proposed in February 2010 with Birgitta being the chief sponsor. It was adopted unanimously by the Althing on 16 June 2010, shortly following the release of the Collateral Murder video. She later split from WikiLeaks, however, saying in September 2010 that "I have strongly urged him to focus on the legalities that he’s dealing with and let some other people carry the torch" following the Swedish police wanting to question Assange over allegations of rape. She spoke to the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'' about WikiLeaks in January 2011, saying: "There is not enough transparency within the organization about decisions and not good enough communication flow." In 2010, she was appointed as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee's Working Group on European Affairs and also the EU-Iceland Joint Parliamentary Committee. In October 2011, she attended a meeting of the

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, where she offered criticisms of Lord Jopling's report on cyber security, writing on her blog that "Apparently such criticism is not common here at the assembly on reports." In 2011, part way through the parliamentary term, she was demoted from full member to observer status in both the Foreign Affairs Committee and their Working Group on European Affairs. She stopped being a member of the Environment and Communications Committee, and instead became a member of both the Judicial Affairs and Education Committee and the Special Committee on the Standing Orders of Althing. From 2011 to 2012, she was the rotating chairman of the Movement's overall party. In 2011, she also became Executive Director of the

(IMMI), that the earlier initiative had transitioned into. In 2012, Birgitta began assisting other The Movement MPs in forming a new political party,

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...

. Dawn was officially formed in March 2012 as a merger between The Movement, the Citizens' Movement and the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. However, in July 2012, she changed her attention to forming a

in Iceland alongside others, including Smári McCarthy. Speaking to ''The Grapevine'', she said: "I’m often crossing paths with nerds as I’m such a nerd myself. The Pirate Party doesn’t revolve around me. I’m just one of many who are creating the group." The party was officially formed in November 2012, with Birgitta unanimously appointed as the first Chairman.

Legal battles

In 2011, the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

issued a

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

for all of Birgitta's Twitter information dating back to November 2009. In response, Birgitta petitioned a

federal appeals court The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fro ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

to force the Department of Justice to open its files on her to disclose the other internet providers that had also been ordered to submit her private data. In response to the case, the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other ...

(IPU) issued a resolution in support of Birgitta, including an expression of deep concern "at the efforts made by a State to obtain information about the communications of a member of parliament of another State and the likely consequences of this for members of parliament the world over on their ability to discharge their popular mandate freely." In 2012, she was a plaintiff in the lawsuit ''

Hedges v. Obama ''Hedges v. Obama''Hedges et v. Obama, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-cv-331 and Hedges et v. Obama, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-3176 was a lawsuit filed in January 2012 against the Obama administr ...

'', initiated against the

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012112th Congress, 1st Session, H1540CR.HSE"National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012."/ref> () is a United States federal law which among other things specifies the budget ...

(NDAA). The NDAA allowed the US government to detain indefinitely those "who are part of or substantially support

Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

, the Taliban or associated forces engaged in hostilities against the United States." Her fellow plaintiffs included

Chris Hedges Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, author, and commentator. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for '' The Christian Science M ...

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is an American political activist, and former United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the '' Pen ...

, Jennifer Bolen, Alexa O'Brien and

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society an ...

. Her testament was read by

Naomi Wolf Naomi Rebekah Wolf (born November 12, 1962) is an American feminist author, journalist and conspiracy theorist. Following her first book ''The Beauty Myth'' (1991), she became a leading spokeswoman of what has been described as the third wave ...

in her place in March 2012. In the judgement of the court, Birgitta Jónsdóttir and fellow plaintiff presented separate evidence against the NDAA to the other plaintiffs, as neither were US citizens. During the judgement of the district court, according to the

Second Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

, the "district court found that both Birgitta and Wargalla had an actual fear of detention under Section 1021 and had incurred costs and other present injuries due to this fear." The result of the case was that a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

district court issued an injunction on the detention powers, but, in 2013, this was overturned by the

Second parliamentary term, 2013–2016

In the

2013 Icelandic parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 27 April 2013. Fifteen parties contested the elections, compared to just seven in the previous elections. The result was a victory for the two centre-right opposition parties, the Independence Part ...

, Birgitta was elected as a Member of the Althing for

, this time representing the

. She continued as both an observer on the

and as a member of the EU-Iceland joint Parliamentary Committee, but also became a member of the Icelandic delegation to the

(IPU) and of the Constitutional and Supervisory Committee, where she was also appointed as the 2nd Deputy Chairman. In October 2013, a film was released about Wikileaks, called ''The Fifth Estate''. In it, Birgitta was portrayed by Dutch actress

Carice van Houten Carice Anouk van Houten () is a Dutch actress and singer (born 5 September 1976 in Leiderdorp). Her first leading role in the television film ''Suzy Q'' (1999) won her the Golden Calf for Best Acting in a Television Drama; two years later, s ...

. During the production of the film, Birgitta advised the director and the scriptwriters, but later said that the "script is very inaccurate in many ways." During an interview with ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', she described how she asked for several scenes to be changed or removed because of their inaccuracies. In December 2013, she was criticised by Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson for her involvement with the film, and particularly for receiving payment for her consultancy work. From 2014 to 2015, Birgitta served as the rotating chairman of the Pirate Party. Since April 2015, the Pirate Party has topped the polls in Iceland ahead of the 2017 parliamentary election. Speaking to ''Quartz'', Birgitta said that "I'm very shocked and I don't know how long it will last. I think it's an expression of the lack of faith in the current, traditional parties in power. We are offering them alternative solutions." In February 2016, she announced that she would be standing for a third term, as, according to ''Iceland Review'', "she feels it’s important for the party to have someone on board experienced in working with the ministries and the inner political structure to ensure the effectiveness of the party." In April 2016, following calls for Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson's resignation in the wake of the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

leak, Birgitta said that the Pirates were ready to form part of a new government in the event of a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

. For about a year before April 2016, the Pirates were Iceland's most popular party, with varying support ranging from 36%-43% support from voters.

Third parliamentary term, 2016–2017

In the

2016 Icelandic parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 29 October 2016. They were due to be held on or before 27 April 2017, but following the 2016 Icelandic anti-government protests, the ruling coalition announced that early elections would be held "i ...

where the Pirate Party won 10 seats with 15% of the vote. In the run up to election Birgitta was accused of trying to manipulate the Pirate primary in the NV election district including by trying to slander the top list seat Þórðar Pétursson and asking other candidates to step down and pushing for the NV list to be invalided to get Gunnar Ingiberg Jónsson in the top seat.

Personal life

Birgitta was married to Charles Egill Hirt (1964-1993), who went missing in June 1993, aged 29. His body was found five years after his disappearance. With Hirt, Birgitta had one son, Neptunús, born in 1991. Birgitta married Australian Daniel Johnson in 2009. They were married for five years and she had a son with him, Delphin, who was born in Melbourne in 2000.

References

External links

Official website
*
Jónsdóttir: On U.S. Subpoena of Her Twitter Account over WikiLeaks
– video report by ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

''
Birgitta Jonsdottir Video Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsdottir, Birgitta 1967 births

Birgitta Jonsdottir Birgitta is the Swedish and Icelandic form of the Irish Gaelic female name ''Brighid''. Brighid or Brigid was the name of an ancient Celtic goddess, and its English form is Bridget. Birgitta and its alternate forms Birgit and Britta became common ...

Articles containing video clips

Icelandic anarchists

Living people

Political party founders

Tibet freedom activists

WikiLeaks