A new wrinkle in the ongoing story of police seeking to question four journalists over data in a stolen phone has arisen.
RÚV reports that the police are not questioning the journalists in question regarding their coverage of the so-called “Samherji guerilla division”, a group of self-styled spin doctors engaging in damage control after revelations in the Fishrot Files showed the fishing giant was engaging in bribery and corruption in Namibia.
While it was initially reported that police were seeking to question these journalists because their reporting on the communications within the guerilla division was possibly derived from data obtained from a phone stolen from a Samherji ship captain, the journalists are being questioned over a separate violation of privacy laws based on other data within this phone that is not connected to Samherji.
This was brought to light by Gunnar Ingi Jóhannsson, the lawyer for Stundin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson. Gunnar Ingi said furthermore that police have information on who actually stole the phone in question, and that suspect is neither a journalist nor connected to the journalists in question.
It bears pointing out that it has not yet been confirmed from where these journalists were able to obtain the communications within the guerilla division, and that they are in fact bound by law to not reveal their sources for their reporting.
This is a developing story; more details will be reported as updated arise.
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