Visa Ordered to Pay Wikileaks Fine of $204.000 per Month

Recently a huge victory for free speech was achieved : Iceland’s Supreme Court has ruled that Visa Contractor Valitor, formerly Visa Iceland, must pay WikiLeaks $204,900 per month or $2,494,604 per year in fines if it continues to blockade the whistle-blowing site.

an original article by Amy Makai (RLM Press)

The court upheld the decision that Valitor had unlawfully terminated its contract with WikiLeaks’ donation processor, DataCell.

Previously, in July 2012 , an Icelandic court ordered Visa to begin processing donations to Wikileaks again, and at that point Visa filed an appeal.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression have both openly criticised the financial blockade against Wikileaks in 2012. Up to this point the situation has remained the same.

Now however, the Icelandic Supreme Court has upheld the original ruling and has once more made clear to Valitor (previously Visa) that they must begin processing those donations again. Since the Icelandic Supreme Court is the highest court in Iceland it is impossible for Valitor to appeal this ruling.

Wikileaks’ founder, Julian Assange, in a statement from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London:

“This is a victory for free speech. This is a victory against the rise of economic censorship to crack down against journalists and publishers.

“We thank the Icelandic people for showing that they will not be bullied by powerful Washington-backed financial services companies like Visa, and we send out a warning to the other companies involved in this blockade: you’re next.”

“[It will] be interesting to see whether Visa will spend $204k a month in fines rather than lifting the blockade generally. Either way, we win.”

How it all began

The financial blockade was imposed upon Wikileaks after the site published leaks exposing corruption within Iceland in December 2010, at which time it launched Cablegate. These leaks provided insight as to why the country’s banking system had collapsed in 2008.

From that moment on, Visa, Mastercard and other US organisations such as Paypal, The Bank of America and Western Union, began the financial blockade, making it impossible for Wikileaks to receive donations.

For a long time this has starved the whistle-blowing site of funds, prompting WikiLeaks to launch fundraisers on its main page.

In addition, Daniel Elsberg (Pentagon Papers whistle blower) and John Cusack (actor), campaigners for Freedom of the Press have launched the Freedom of the Press Foundation, with the goal of collecting funds for Wikileaks as well as other organisations. Donors are able to make anonymous, tax-deductible donations.

The story does not end here

A similar battle is being fought between Visa and a Danish subcontractor for Visa.

Furthermore, the Wikileaks website addresses having launched a formal complaint to the European Commission as Visa and Mastercard unlawfully abused their dominant marketing position. These two credit card companies make up 95% of the European market. It is not yet clear whether the European Commission will open a formal investigation.

At this point in time Julian Assange continues to reside at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has successfully gained political asylum in Ecuador. However, he is still wanted for questioning on sexual charges in Sweden.  The UK continues to feel obligated to extradite Assange to Sweden, with the likelihood of him being sent to the US and be tried on espionage charges from there.

Source: Rising Life Media Press