Welcome back to RVK Newscast! Join editor-in-chief, Valur Grettisson, in beautiful Hafnafjördur for all the latest in Icelandic news: dental care for children, an important court case for alcohol laws, and a high-profile victim of sexual violence presses charges.
It is thought that around 5,000 children are not accessing dental treatment in Iceland, despite the service being essentially free. The head of the Association of Icelandic Dentists, Jóhanna Bryndís Bjarnadóttir, believes that the children affected are predominately the offspring of immigrants. There is also a common misconception that dental care is expensive, but in fact parents only ned to pay an annual fee of ISK 2,500 – all treatment is included in this.
ÁTVR, the government-owned body that is responsible for running Vínbúðin, the Icelandic liquor store, has lost a case regarding the selling of alcohol online. The Reykjavík District Court dismissed the case of ÁTVR against two companies who had set up websites to sell alcohol. While Icelanders are able to legally order alcohol online when it is sold abroad, the state holds a monopoly on alcohol sales within the country. This ruling may pave the way for Iceland’s strict alcohol laws to be relaxed in the future.
Vítalía Lazareva, a young Icelandic woman, has pressed charges against three men for sexual violence after her story was broken in Edda Falak’s podcast, Eigin Konur last year. The three men were accused of abusing her in a summer house in Iceland in 2020. All of them are powerful players in business life in Iceland. Read our February cover story with Edda Falak.
Listen to The Icelandic Roundup, the new weekly podcast from Josie Anne and Valur! You can stream it online, or find it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts here.
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