Iceland summons US envoy over demand for MP's Twitter details

[kster]

Guardian

Reykjavik calls for explanation of Justice Department's move to access account of politician caught up in WikiLeaks inquiry


Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 January 2011


The American ambassador to Iceland has been summoned to explain why US officials are trying to access the Twitter account of an Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks collaborator.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, revealed last week that the US justice department had asked Twitter to hand over her information. The US authorities are trying to build a criminal case against the website after its huge leaks of classified US information.

" very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official," the interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson, told Icelandic broadcaster RUV. "This is even more serious when put perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people's freedom in general," he added.

Iceland's foreign ministry has demanded a meeting with Luis Arreaga, the US ambassador to Reykjavík. No one at the US embassy in Reykjavík was available for comment.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/iceland-us-ambassador-twitter-wikileaks