Jón Þrastar Jónsson’s Family Launches Media Complaint

The family of Jón Þrastar Jónsson, who disappeared in Dublin in February 2019, are planning to submit formal complaints to both Ireland’s National Union of Journalists and the Icelandic Journalist’s Association, Fréttablaðið reported this morning. They made this information known on the ‘Jon Jonsson missing in Dublin’ Facebook page.

The Grapevine reported on the case of Jón’s disappearance at the time.

The statement appears to have been triggered by an article which was published in the Irish Independent yesterday morning, which detailed how a poker game could “unlock the mystery of the missing Icelander”. The article claimed that Jón had lost a large sum of money belonging to an Icelandic criminal.

The family’s statement read:

Early morning yesterday the Independent published a very detailed and disturbing article about Jon’s disappearance.

In the article, the reporter claims that Jon’s family was made aware of the information, detailed in the article, by an informant. This is utterly untrue as no such information has been received by the family nor have we received any leads from an imprisoned informant.

Furthermore, our contacts at Garda and the Icelandic police have confirmed to members of the family that they haven’t received any information as described in the article nor did they communicate any such information to the reporter, Ali Bracken, or the Independent. So the story is at best based on information from an unreliable source or, at worst, completely made up.

The family’s complaint is on the basis that the journalists at the Independent breached articles 3 and 6 of the NUJ’s Code of Conduct. Their complaint to the Icelandic Journalist’s Association is in response to articles which were based on the Independent’s story.

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

You can also check out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door.