Kristinn Hrafnsson

Kristinn Hrafnsson
Kristinn Hrafnsson speaks in Brisbane, Australia in June 2011.
Born (1962-06-25) 25 June 1962[1]
Occupation investigative journalist
Known for former spokesperson for WikiLeaks

Kristinn Hrafnsson (born 25 June 1962) is an Icelandic investigative journalist known for his former role as spokesperson for the WikiLeaks organisation between 2010 and 2017.[2]

He has worked at various newspapers in Iceland and hosted the television programme Kompás on the Icelandic channel Stöð 2, where he and his team often exposed criminal activity and corruption in high places. In February 2009, while investigating the connection between Iceland's Kaupthing Bank and Robert Tchenguiz and Vincent Tchenguiz, the programme was taken off air and Kristinn and his crew were sacked.[3]

Shortly thereafter, Kristinn was hired by RÚV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service. In August 2009, he was working on a story about Kaupthing's loan book which had just been published on the WikiLeaks webpage, when the bank got a gag order issued by the Reykjavik sheriff's office, banning RÚV from reporting on the loan book, which could be publicly accessed online via WikiLeaks.[4] The prohibition order was withdrawn later.[5]

Kristinn was dismissed from RÚV (his contract was not renewed) in July 2010.[6] After this point, he worked as an independent journalist. Beginning in 2010, he collaborated with WikiLeaks, serving as the organisation's spokesman after founder Julian Assange withdrew from the limelight. He has called the December 2010 attacks on WikiLeaks by MasterCard, Visa, and others a "privatisation of censorship".[7] In 2012, in his capacity as WikiLeaks spokesman, he defended the organisation on the website of Swedish Television against what he described as a smear campaign by the Swedish tabloid Expressen.[8]

Kristinn has been named Icelandic journalist of the year three times, in 2004, 2007 and 2010 by Iceland's National Union of Journalists.[9]

In early 2017, Hrafnsson stated that he was no longer spokesperson for Wikileaks.[10][11]

Kristinn Hrafnsson was appointed editor in chief of Wikileaks on 26 September 2018 taking over from Julian Assange [12]

References

  1. ↑ Louise Osborne (10 December 2010). "Wikileaks-Sprecher Kristinn Hrafnsson: 'Wir hatten einen Notfallplan'" [Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson: 'We had a contingency plan']. Die Tageszeitung (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  2. ↑ Andy Greenberg (7 December 2010). "Meet The New Public Face Of WikiLeaks: Kristinn Hrafnsson". Forbes. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  3. ↑ Victor-M Amela; Ima Sanchiz; Lluis Amiguet (17 June 2011). "'Vivimos asediados por la Administración de EE.UU.'" ['We live under siege by U.S. Government']. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  4. ↑ Hafsteinn Gunnar Hauksson (1 August 2009). "Kaupþing fékk lögbann á umfjöllun RÚV" [Kaupþing receives an injunction on the RÚV coverage]. Vísir (in Icelandic). Reykjavík. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  5. ↑ Jón Hákon Halldórsson (4 August 2009). "Lögbanni aflétt af fréttaflutningi RÚV" [Injunction lifted on news reporting by RÚV]. Vísir (in Icelandic). Reykjavík. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Kristinn Hrafnsson rekinn af Ríkisútvarpinu" [Kristinn Hrafnsson fired by the National Broadcasting Service]. Pressan (in Icelandic). Reykjavík. 27 July 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "WikiLeaks Rep in Iceland Requests Government Support". Iceland Review. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  8. ↑ "Wikileaks: Vi tänker inte smutskasta Sverige" [WikiLeaks: We do not intend to denigrate Sweden]. Debatt (in Swedish). 5 March 2012. Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  9. ↑ "WikiLeaks spokesman wins Journalist of the Year in Iceland". The Times. Valletta, Malta. AFP. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  10. ↑ Lang, Jeffrey. "Wikileaks loses spokesman leaving Julian Assange alone facing eviction". 1 Mar 2017. Archived from the original on 9 Aug 2017. Retrieved 27 Sep 2018.
  11. ↑ Former Wikileaks Spokesperson On Manning Sentence Commute: "Victory For Justice"
  12. ↑ https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1045034219939016704

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