Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.
May 15
Brittilehti: Kreikka, varo “karhumaista” Timo Soinia! (Ilta-Sanomat)
What’s wrong with this story? The Finnish media has been criticized in the past for being toothless when it comes to covering immigration and cultural diversity news. We’ve all seen too many examples of how the national media parrots what politicians want them to publish. This latter situation is partly guaranteed by the fact that politicians require Finnish journalists to show them what is going to be published for example in an interview. Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat like Iltalehti are sad examples of shoddy and racist journalism. They have done a lot to spread urban tales and suspicion about migrants and minorities. If you disagree, check out what they wrote about the first Somali refugees that came to the country in the early 1990s. In the story below, which cites a Daily Telegraph story about Perussuomalaiset* leader Timo Soini, defends the leader of the populist party when the London daily claims that he is “fiercely anti-immigration.” For some strange reason the reporter has to point out that Soini denies that he is “fiercely anti-immigration.” Is it the job of the journalist to tell us his opinion about Soini or is it the reader who decides if the PS leader is or isn’t fiercely anti-immigration?
Read full story (in Finnish) here.
Read Daily Telegraph story here.
* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.