Wikileaks wins legal case against credit card company in Iceland

  In Reykjavik the capital of  Iceland, the district court ruled that Valitor, formerly VISA Iceland, violated contract law. The company blocked credit card donations to Wikileaks. The news is reported via Wikileaks Twitter account.
   The court ruled as well that the donation gateway must be again opened within a period of fourteen days. If Valitor fails to comply it will face a fine of $6,200 daily.
    Julian Assange remarked: "This is a significant victory against Washington's attempt to silence WikiLeaks. We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it's done outside of the rule of law its doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history." Iceland generally has supported Wikileaks. The article does not mention legal cases being pursued in other countries but perhaps there are.
   When donors were prevented from making donations through credit cards donations declined by over 95 per cent. In Iceland in June Datacell the Icelandic based company that processes donations for Wikileaks filed a case against Valitor for  "unlawfully suspending financial services".


   Olafur Sigurvinsson director of  Datacell said:. "I can support Al-Qaida, the Ku Klux Klan, buy weapons and drugs and all kinds of porn with my Visa card. There is nobody investigating this, but I cannot support a human rights organisation which is fighting for freedom of expression," One might be charged for some of those actions I expect but his point is no doubt correct. The U.S. government no doubt put considerable pressure on credit card companies not to process donations for Wikileaks.  For more see this article.