Due to a remark in an interview with the foreign press that Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr goes online to look at “mostly porn,” the matter will now be brought up and discussed in city hall.
In the interview in question, with the AFP, among other questions, Gnarr is asked about his internet habits. His response, said with a laugh, was “Mostly porn.”
Sóley Tómasdóttir, city council representative for the Leftist-Greens, has taken the matter seriously and wants it discussed in city hall today.
“Maybe it was a joke, but I don’t know how innocent it was,” Sóley told Vísir. “Jokes like this don’t do anything but normalize porn. Humor is a powerful weapon, as Jón knows well. This is very serious, and in direct opposition to the city’s platform on human rights.”
Sóley here refers to the fact that it is a part of the city’s human rights platform – which Sóley helped author – to work against the spread of pornography. She also adds that it’s a serious matter that the mayor of a city, himself a role model to young people, would make light of porn.
Hrannar Björn Arnarsson, assistant to the Prime Minister, agrees with Sóley, as does Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, chairman of the city social welfare committee. “Porn is violence,” she writes on her Facebook page. “Don’t understand why the mayor was saying this, seeing how he’s a sincere spokesman against violence.”