Councilman Offers Reward If Anonymous Columnist Comes Forward

A Reykjavík city councilperson has offered to pay 100,000 ISK to charity every month for a year, if the author of an anonymous column reveals themselves.

Staksteinn is a regular column that appears in the newspaper Morgunblaðið and often casts criticisms (many of them based on unnamed sources) at left-wing politicians. Though it has no byline, Morgunblaðið co-editors Davíð Oddsson and Haraldur Johannessen bear the ultimate responsibility for it.

DV reports that a recent Staksteinn column accused Pirate Party councilperson Halldór Auðar Svansson of “being paid with a well-salaried pet project” for keeping silent about the other parties’ “unwillingness to inform the public of the machinations of city council and its companies”.

Halldór contends the accusation is “an utter falsehood … designed to damage the reputation and honour of people with untruths.” The matter, however, does not end with a simple retort.

Posting on his Facebook, Halldór now says he will pay 100,000 ISK each month to charity for one year if the author of the Staksteinn column reveals themselves and matches his donations to charity.

“This offer has no expiration date,” he writes. “The appropriate party can, whenever they like, accept the offer, and we will get things started with the first of the month following.”

The Staksteinn author has not come forward at the time of this writing.