The MC is the only institutional mechanism in place for media monitoring, and its scope is limited. The MCshall, by law, monitor the status of and developments on the media market and collect relating data, monitor registration obligations and the granting of licences to provide audiovisual media services, and ensure that information on all the media service providers are in hand. Five persons are appointed to the MC, including one by the NUIJ. At the time of writing (August 2020), there is criticism from the NUIJ over the functioning and rulings of the MC, and the representative of NUIJ resigned from the commission in April 2019. This criticism marks the outlook journalists have toward the MC. The NUIJ felt that in contrast to the function of MC rulings for the first five to six years, the rulings have, on at least two occasions, drifted beyond the institution’s scope and into ethical journalistic conduct that should be covered by the self-regulation function of NUIJ’s Code of Ethics Committee.
The public broadcaster RÚV is monitored by the MC but also falls under the scrutiny of the Ministry for Education, Science, and Culture through the Public Service Remit (negotiated every four years). The ministry can ask for information regarding the Remit at any time, and representatives of both parties have meetings twice a year on how it is carried out and whether changes should be made.
A government bill proposing public financial support for private media was tabled in the parliament last year, but it has not been passed at the time of writing this report (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2020). It is unclear whether the bill will be passed, but if it becomes law, monitoring of the media will increase.
The National Union of Icelandic Journalists publishes a magazine twice a year with coverage of media matters. It also has a CoE ruling committee that scrutinises possible violations based on complaints. From 2017 to 2019, 21 complaints were filed, of which 4 were considered to include a breach of code (see also Indicator E7 – Code of ethics at the national level). As for other monitoring activities, academics at universities are doing research, but to a rather limited degree. Statistics Iceland collects and publishes statistical facts on media turnover, distribution, consumption, and so forth, and there are firms like Gallup that measure media usage. As for media blogs, journals on media coverage, and journalism, relevant media bloggers, newspaper space, television and radio programmes on news coverage, and other such independent and private monitoring, they are non-existent in Iceland. There is a popular Facebook page (Fjölmiðlanördar [Media nerds]) with a lot of discussions, but little real impact.
