''DV'' (''Dagblaðið Vísir'') is an online newspaper in

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 ...

published by Torg ehf. It came into existence as a 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, sport ...

in 1981 when two formerly independent newspapers,

Vísir ''Vísir'' was an Icelandic newspaper founded in December 1910 by Einar Gunnarsson, originally only distributed in and around Reykjavík. In 1967, Jónas Kristjánsson became its editor. In 1975, he left the paper after a conflict with the ownersh ...

and

Dagblaðið ''Dagblaðið'' () was an Icelandic newspaper founded in 1975 by former employees of Vísir with Jónas Kristjánsson as its first editor. It marked a breakthrough in Icelandic newspaper publication as it was the first major newspaper that was inde ...

, merged. Early on it was one of the largest newspapers in Iceland and at one point had a 64% readership in Iceland. In the 1990s its readership started to dwindle and in 2003 its publisher was declared bankrupt. It was resurrected a week later by the publisher of

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 paper ...

. In 2006 it was changed from a daily newspaper into a weekly one. Since then it has changed publishers regularly and in 2018 its publisher, DV ehf., went bankrupt. Its assets were bought by a new publisher, . In December 2019, Torg ehf., the owner of

, agreed to buy Dagblaðið Vísir from Frjáls Fjölmiðlun ehf. The media has changed dramatically since its inception. Today it online only and focuses mainly on sensational crime stories, astrology, and domestic and foreign celebrity news. Its editorial policy has sparked public controversies in Iceland.

History

''DV'' was founded in 1981 from a merger of two preceding newspapers, ''Dagblaðið'' and ''Vísir'', that were founded in 1975 and 1910 respectively.

2001 Árni Johnsen scandal

On 13 July 2001, DV revealed that

Árni Johnsen Árni Johnsen (born 1 March 1944) is an Icelandic former politician from Vestmannaeyjar, who represented the Independence Party in the Althing as a member of the South Constituency South ( is, Suður) is one of the six multi-member constitu ...

, a prominent member of

Alþingi 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 "assembl ...

, had taken out building materials from the construction store Byko on 2 July in the name of the building committee of the

National Theatre of Iceland The National Theatre of Iceland (NTI) ( is, Þjóðleikhúsið, pronounced ) in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland. The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on 20 April 1950. Since 2020, the artistic direct ...

but had the materials transported to his home in

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

. The scandal led to his resignation from Alþingi on 19 July. In February 2003 he was sentenced by the Supreme Court of Iceland to 2 years in prison for embezzlement and misrepresentation in public office, bribery and false reports to the authorities.

2006 suicide controversy

In January 2006, ''DV'' ran a cover story claiming that former elementary school teacher Gísli Hjartarson had sexually abused two or more boys in his home town of

Ísafjörður Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...

, Northwest Iceland. Gísli, who had not been charged with the abuse, committed suicide the same day and cited the coming news coverage as his reason in a letter he left for his family, although he did not name ''DV'' specifically. The accusers of the man stated their displeasure with DV's article as it ruined the progress of the case as well as the continued harassment from their reporters. The event caused an uproar against ''DV'' with 32.044 people signing an online petition demanding a new editorial policy. On 13 January 2006, the editors, Mikael Torfason and Jónas Kristjánsson, resigned from their post. On 4 June 2008, ''DV'' reported that The State Committee of Compensations had paid compensation to two of the boys.

2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis

Following the

2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis The Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political event in Iceland that involved the default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2008, following their difficulties in refinancing their ...

, the report of the Special Investigation Commission, that was formed by

, specifically noted ''DV'' as almost the only newspaper in Iceland that questioned the Icelandic banks prior to the collapse of the Icelandic banking system in 2008. As a result, the paper acquired broader readership.

References

External links