Yesterday was “World Press Freedom Day”, and to celebrate with a pat on their own back, Finland’s Newspaper Association (Sanomalehtien Liitto) took out an ad in today’s Helsingin Sanomat reminding us that we have one of the most free presses in the world (tied for 5th in 2007). The ad even lays down a quick job to “lesser free” the countries: North Korea, China, Russia, England, and the U.S. (although they fail to mention the countries who have a “freer” press than Finland)
Finland has a strong free press, excellent! But here’s my question: Has that free press ever been challenged? During the Soviet era, Finland was known throughout the world for its self-censorship…
During the period of Finlandization freedom of speech was limited. Public libraries removed from circulation books, more than 1,700 titles, that were deemed anti-Soviet and bookstores were given catalogs of banned books.[1] The Finnish Board of Film Classification likewise banned movies that it considered to be anti-Soviet. Banned movies included The Manchurian Candidate, directed by John Frankenheimer in 1962, and Born American by Finnish director Renny Harlin in 1986.
…surely a lot has changed since then (although the Finnish media has been scolded for it’s self-censorship of the recent Russian elections). Any other time anyone attempts to test the boundaries of free speech Finland, they seem to get challenged…
- A Finnish organization had posted the infamous “Mohammed” cartoons and became the only group within Europe to face a federal investigation for the act.
- Finland’s state-run broadcasting company censored a documentary on the Mohammed cartoons, they later aired this after public outcry.
- The Finnish state now censors the internet and bans Finnish ISP’s from showing many sites with inappropriate content.
- A Finnish blogger was fined for a blog post he wrote concerning African culture and immigration.
- Finland’s current Prime Minister took his ex-girlfriend and her publisher to court over an autobiography she had written.
- A 15-year old schoolboy was fined $4,220 for posting a video on YouTube of his teacher and joking that he was “a lunatic singing at the karaoke of the mental hospital.
- Finnish animal activists passed out flyers protesting the sale of fur at Finland’s prized department store, Stockmann’s. Finnish authorities. The activists houses were raided and materials were confiscated.
- A Finnish blogger went to court over the comments he made about a school principal and the fundamentalist religious schooling Finnish children were receiving.
…sure there’s plenty of examples like these. But how about examples where the tests of free speech aren’t resisted? My Finnish isn’t as good as most of yours, so you’ll have to help me out here. But it seems that for decades, Finland’s press plays by a set of unwritten rules and few dare to challenge the system.