The mass media in Iceland are well-developed for a country of its size. The

Constitution of Iceland The Constitution of Iceland ( Icelandic: ''Stjórnarskrá lýðveldisins Íslands'' "Constitution of the republic of Iceland") is the supreme law of Iceland. It is composed of 80 articles in seven sections, and within it the leadership arrangemen ...

guarantees absolute

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

. Therefore,

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

’s media are among the freest in the world. Iceland has been in the top ten of the

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

Press Freedom Index The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organisation's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to ...

, since it was first compiled in 2002 until 2014. It was first or joint first in 2002-2008 and 2010. Its 2015 ranking is twenty one, reflecting a sharp deterioration in freedom of information since 2013, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Television

The principal

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

in Iceland is

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

, which is

state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

. It has a commitment to promote the

Icelandic language Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...

and the country’s history, and is partly funded by license fee; the rest of the RÚV’s income comes from

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

. The channel broadcast by RÚV is Sjónvarpið, which translates as ‘the television’. Broadcasts started in 1966, and coverage very quickly reached every household in Iceland. RÚV had a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

on domestic broadcasting until 1986. The main private television network is 365 corporation which runs numerous television stations including

Stöð 2 Stöð 2 (literally Station 2) is an Icelandic subscription television channel, owned and operated by Sýn. Founded in 1986, it was the first privately owned television station in Iceland following the lifting of the state monopoly on televisi ...

(lit. ‘Channel 2’) which broadcasts mostly American programming but also original Icelandic programming and news programs. Other notable channels owned by 365 include

Stöð 2 Sport Stöð 2 Sport is an Icelandic television channel that broadcast a wide variety of different sports in Iceland. Stöð 2 Sport is only broadcast in Iceland and only in Icelandic. Sports shown Stöð 2 Sport offers a wide variety of live sports ...

, a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

channel, and various other sports channels and a movie channel which broadcasts mostly American movies. All of 365's channels are funded by subscription fees and advertising sales with one exception, Skífan TV, a music channel with music videos 24/7. The only subscription free principal channel is Skjár einn, which mainly broadcasts American programming and original Icelandic programming and is completely funded by advertising sales.

Radio

Before television broadcasting started in 1966, RÚV had already been broadcasting

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

since 1930.

Rás 1 Rás 1 (; ''Channel 1'') is an Icelandic radio station belonging to and operated by Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV), Iceland's national public service broadcaster. Broadcast throughout Iceland on FM (92.4 and 93.5 MHz in Reykjavík), via satellite ...

is the principal radio station, along with its sister channel

Rás 2 Rás 2 (''Channel 2'') is an Icelandic radio station belonging to the National Icelandic Broadcasting Service, RÚV. Launched on 1 December 1983, it is currently the highest-rated radio station in Iceland, with a schedule composed chiefly of ne ...

Bylgjan Bylgjan (''The Wave'') is an Icelandic radio station, run by the media company Sýn. Launched in 1986, it was the first privately owned radio station in Iceland. Bylgjan is broadcast throughout the country from a network of FM transmitters (98. ...

is a notable private broadcaster. During World War Two, the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

operated Icelandic programming from the 1 December 1940 until 26 June 1944. From 1951 until 2006 US Armed Forces Radio broadcast from Keflavik military base.

Iceland Review ''Iceland Review'' is the oldest English-language magazine about Iceland, having originally been published in August 1963. It also runs a news website which covers current events in Iceland. Since 2009, the online version is offered in German as w ...

https://www.icelandreview.com/news/american-forces-radio-signs-off/ reported "It started operations in 1951 and had broadcast continuously for 55 years." And went on to say that "According to RÚV, the US Armed Forces Radio, colloquially known as “Yankee Radio”, made more American music available to Icelandic audiences and “deeply influenced the music, fashion and attitudes of Icelandic youth.”

Press

Literature is a favourite pastime of the Icelanders, and so the printed press in the country is quite well developed.

Newspapers

Fréttablaðið ''Fréttablaðið'' ( en, The Newspaper) is a free Icelandic newspaper. It is distributed five days per week. History and profile ''Fréttablaðið'' was established in 2001. It was originally owned primarily by the media group '' 365''. The pape ...

'' is the principal

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

in Iceland, and has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the country. It is distributed by 365 hf. to homes, free of charge. ''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. History ''Morgunblaðið'' was founded by Vilhjálmur Finsen and Ólafur Björnsson, brother of ...

'' is a much older newspaper, founded in 1913, and is ''Fréttablaðið''’s main competitor. Its

readership Readership may refer to: * The group of readers of a particular publication or writer: their target audience * The total number of readers of a particular publication (newspaper, magazine, book), as proxy-measured by web/app views or print circulat ...

is second largest after ''Fréttablaðið''. These are the two main publications in terms of the

quality press The quality press or the qualities are those British newspapers in national circulation distinguished by their seriousness. The category used to be called "broadsheet" until several papers adopted a tabloid printing format. Both ''The Times'' ...

. The

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

s include DV, a small yet controversial paper, which is published four times a week.

Viðskiptablaðið ''Viðskiptablaðið'' (English: ''The Business Paper'') is an Icelandic newspaper focusing on business, economy, and national affairs. History The paper was founded in 1994 as a weekly paper on business and economy affairs. Its first editor was ...

, Icelandic Financial News (lit. ‘the commercial newspaper’), is the country's principal business-oriented newspaper.

Magazines

is an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

magazine about Iceland, published quarterly.

The Reykjavík Grapevine ''The Reykjavík Grapevine'' is an English language Icelandic magazine and online newspaper based in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík. Its target audience primarily consists of foreigners, immigrants, international students, young Icelanders, ...

is a free alternative magazine published and based 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 ...

, since June 2003. The magazine prints practical information on traveling and leisure for travelers, along with articles on

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, c ...

and

Icelandic culture The culture of Iceland is rich and varied as well as being known for its literary heritage which began in the 12th century. Icelandic traditional arts include weaving, silversmithing, and wood carving. The Reykjavík area has several professional t ...

in general.

Internet

The internet is unrestricted by the government, and is used by around 97% of the population. Government has put in place rules that force telecommunication companies to block popular file sharing sites like

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute mag ...

and

KickassTorrents KickassTorrents (commonly abbreviated KAT) was a website that provided a directory for torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. It was founded in 2008 and by November 2014, KAT became ...

.
Pirate Bay lokað til að opna aftur annarsstaðar, Kjarninn

References

Lists

* List of Icelandic newspapers * List of Icelandic magazines *

List of Icelandic television channels Television in Iceland is currently composed of the public broadcasting service of RÚV, five free-to-view channels and a number of subscription channels provided by private broadcasters. Broadcasts began in 1955 when the American Forces Radio and Te ...

* List of Icelandic radio stations