Comment: This column by Hanna Leivonniemi shows how the Finnish media and the politicians avoided debating during the campaign issues like the role of tolerance of minorities in our society. You guessed it: the media and politicians failed miserably on this front.
True Finns’ chairman Timo Soini was even asked at an TV election debate what he thought about Jussi Halla-aho, a candidate of the True Finns and a member of the far-right Suomen Sisu association. Soini not only said Halla-aho did a good job as a Helsinki city councilman but the rest of the candidates didn’t even bother to question Soini’s remark.
Silence is another form of tacit approval of the role of racism in our society. The Finnish media has played a role in this silence.
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Hanna Leivonniemi
Kun maahanmuuttovastaisuudestaan tunnetut ruotsidemokraatit viime syksynä näyttivät tuplaavan äänimääränsä Ruotsin valtiopäivillä, ruotsalainen yhteiskunta, media sen mukana, ryhtyi vastarintaan.
Is there a shop which you can hire statements and words to discredit political parties with?.
“True Finns’ chairman Timo Soini was even asked at an TV election debate what he thought about Jussi Halla-aho, a candidate of the True Finns and a member of the far-right Suomen Sisu”
Because I was wondering if you where getting your moneys worth before you take them back to the shop ?
The TV debates were generally terrible. Just as any issue got interesting, the TV hosts demanded that the subject be changed to the next issue. There was no real discussion – you could quite easily predict what they were all going to say in response to the questions, there was no real point in watching if you wanted to see anyone challenged for real. The coverage as a whole of the election campaign focused so much so on the “inevitability” of the True Finns’ great success that the whole thing had the feel of coronation ceremony rather than an election, it was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. Particularly MTV’s coverage was shameful, but Finnish Yle’s was not a lot better.