Birgitta Jónsdóttir

Birgitta Jónsdóttir (born in Reykjavík in 1967) is an Icelandic poet, activist and politician who sat in the Althing, Iceland's parliament, from 2009 to 2017. She matters because she moved from the world of poetry and art into national politics during her country's financial crisis, and built her political identity around free speech and government transparency.

She was born in Reykjavík, the daughter of folk singer Bergþóra Árnadóttir. Her biological father left when she was a baby, and her mother's later husband, the shipowner and fisherman Jón Ólafsson, raised her as his own. As a teenager she read anarchist literature. She published her first poetry collection at a young age and has since combined writing with visual art, exhibiting and performing across three continents. Around 1995 her focus shifted to the internet, and in 1996 she organised Iceland's first live stream.

After the 2008 financial collapse she became one of the best-known faces of the protests. She was first elected in 2009 for the Citizens' Movement, but later that year left it with two colleagues to form The Movement. She championed the International Modern Media Initiative, a legislative package adopted unanimously in June 2010 that aimed to make Iceland a haven for press freedom. That year she helped produce WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder video, and she later distanced herself from the organisation.

In 2012 she helped found the Icelandic Pirate Party and became its first chairman; in 2013 she returned to parliament with that party. Her legal battles in the United States, over a subpoena for her Twitter data and the Hedges v. Obama lawsuit, made her known well beyond Iceland. Her lasting contribution lies in her effort to bring the defence of press freedom and privacy into lawmaking.