It's expected to codify journalists' rights to protect sources and whistleblowers, and to all but eliminate the threat of censorship.

Drafters say the initiative could also encourage journalists' worldwide to publish through an Internet server based on the island to benefit from its muscular press protections.

Assange, cofounder of the groundbreaking online whistleblowing organization, worked closely with Icelandic parliamentarians to devise the legislation and may be its first beneficiary. News reports say he is being "hunted" by U.S. authorities who believe he may have up to a quarter million American secret diplomatic cables that, if published, could threaten or embarrass U.S. interests.

Those cables were allegedly passed to him by a U.S. serviceman also suspected of providing the organization with an incendiary video showing U.S. Army helicopter gunners killing Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists.

"As an exercise in aspirations, it's a bold and important endeavour," Oxford University’s Professor Monroe Price told U.K.'s The Independent yesterday. "But if it's a significant issue like a national security question, then the charging jurisdiction will figure out ways of asserting its power."

The high-stakes showdown between the U.S. and Assange got hotter Wednesday when Assange emailed supporters saying he was preparing to release a second U.S. attack on video, this one leaving as many as 140 civilians dead. Stay tuned.