By Enrique Tessieri
The Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) has exonerated Kirkko&Kaupunki after a cartoon was published on December 14 mocking a group of Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MPs telling everyone who wasn’t a Finnish heterosexual and white conservative to leave Finland. The JSN said in a statement that Ville Ranta’s cartoon was neither degrading nor insulting.
Kirkko&Kaupunki is a weekly published in Helsinki by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland.
The decision by Finland’s watchdog organization for journalistic ethics was no surprise except to the PS, which had filed the complaint.
PS MP Anssi Joutsenlahti, one person pictured in the cartoon telling foreigners they should leave the country, wasn’t happy about the ruling. “How could they ever publish this cartoon in a periodical?” he was quoted as saying on Uusi Suomi.
JSN said that politicians are public figures and therefore must stand heavy criticism.
The JSN-PS cartoon ruling reveals the sheer ignorance of Timo Soini’s party of the role of the media in our democratic society. It is alarming that a political party in Finland wants to set limits and guidelines on what the media can publish.
A Merry Christmas to you all Finnish heterosexuals and white conservatives! We wish the rest a shitty Christmas!
As you noted, Ricky, this outcome is no huge surprise. A couple of observations seem to be appropriate:
1) JSN could have declined to examine the complaint under point 2 of its own guidelines:
The JSN decision indicates that the petitioner explicitly referred to a potential civil or criminal claim:
It is interesting that JSN chose to examine the complaint anyway. I suspect that it did so because the civil and criminal actions in question are obvious non-starters.
2) Seppo Simola, Editor-in-Chief of Kirkko & kaupunki, explains why a charge of defaming a population group would inevitably fail. This is worth quoting here, because we have seen the ridiculous suggestion dozens of times on MT that criticising neofascists amounts to defaming a population group defined by its ethical (moral, religious) convictions:
It is interesting that certain individuals cannot see the difference between ethical (moral, religious) convictions and political views, most particularly in cases where those same individuals claim to adhere to no religious tradition of their own.
So, excuse me to sounding confused but, what’s the difference between this cartoon about P.S, and Jussi Halla Aho scripta, where he clearly mock religio of islam and his followers in the blog using racist remarks on Black africans and other ethnic minorities? shoulds they stop mocking others if they’re concerned of them being mocked back?
Great to see you here, D4R! You pose a good question: “Shoulds they stop mocking others if they’re concerned of them being mocked back?”
If the arguments used by the PS and other anti-immigration personalities are off the wall, their solutions are just as bad. Their natural state is to whine, complain and label others. They have no solutions. That’s why they are a near-constant target of the media and other critics.
Thank you Enrique, im glad to be back, back on business and staying active.