There is a lot of shoddy journalism out there but the worst of the lot is journalism that reinforces and spreads prejudices, racism and bigotry.
I couldn’t believe me eyes when I read the following headline today: “The much-feared rape wave [by asylum seekers] didn’t happen, police confirm.”
The first question that comes to mind is where did the reporter that wrote the story assume that there was going to be in a rape wave committed in summer by asylum seekers?
Can the Finnish media be so gullible, even racist?
Can the Finnish public be so gullible, even racist?
Yes, they can.
Read the full story here.
Since the majority of all rapes committed in Finland are done by white Finnish males, why doesn’t the story even bother to mention this fact?
Source: Migrant Tales.
The media isn’t the only source that keeps an urban tale like excessive rapes by “foreign hordes” alive, the National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula) does it as well.
Optula published a study in 2014, “Immigrants as crime victims and offenders in Finland,” which claims that rapes committed by those born in Africa and the Middle East were 17 times higher than those by native Finns.
Professor Vesa Puuronen of Oulu University spoke to Migrant Tales last year and said that since the statistical information used by Optula is only from one source or the police service, it has, therefore, a lot of holes.
“We don’t know how many unreported rape cases there are in this country because many of the rapes committed by Finnish men are against women they know,” he said. “The rape case may never get reported for fear of getting her acquaintance in trouble. How many of these cases are there? We simply don’t know.”
Spreading exaggerated urban tales and lies can cause violence against migrants and minorities.
It even emboldens city councillors like Seppo Heino of the Perussuomalaiset* party to encourage people to use violence against migrants if the situation requires, writes Keski-Uusimaa.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”