I’m always surprised by the aha moment of the mainstream media when it comes to the hostile and polarizing message of the Perussuomalaiset (PS).* After PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen was caught with her hand in the cookie jar by attempting to favor Christians over Muslims in the quota-refugee scheme, Finland’s biggest daily reported that…
Tag: Finnish media
Länsi-Savo: Racism is a serious social ill
An article in Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo (10 August) interviewed three members of the Finns Party (PS) from the South Savo region who claimed that racism has no place in the party. If this is true, it is significant and welcome news. In the face of the numerous racism scandals that have overshadowed the activities of…
Media Monitoring Group of Finland:* In the face of rising far-right nationalism, Yle publishes (again) a story about youths who hate foreigners
Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) published Saturday a story about two far-right youths belonging to the openly fascist and racist Blue-and-Black Movement (Sinimusta liike), and one to Suomen Sisu, which the authorities named in 2011 as “a Nazi-spirited association.” Thanks to the Yle article, the reader can read how much these so-called “radical nationalists” hate migrants….
Finnish racism, the PS, and the duck test: Nobody knew, but suddenly everyone now knows
One of the most startling comments heard from politicians like Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Anna-Maja Henriksson of the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) is that they were ignorant of the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS)* racist posts and comments on social media. The claim by the head of the SPP left a lot of political analysts with open…
Elections are over in Finland – media and social media interest in “youth gangs” nosedives
As Migrant Tales correctly predicted, interest in the so-called “youth gang” problem has tanked in the media and social media after the parliamentary election. Twenty-three days after and before the April 2 election, news on the topic by five media outlets (Helsingin Sanomat, Yle, MTV, Iltalehti, and Ilta-Sanomat) plummeted by 54.5% to five stories from…
Media Monitoring Group of Finland:* A disappointing parliamentary election
STATEMENT Just like in the last four parliamentary elections, narratives such as migrant crime spread by the far-right anti-immigration Finns Party (PS) paid off handsomely. It is not, however, the only reason why the PS was able to win a record 46 seats but was helped by the National Coalition Party, which won the election…
Media Monitoring Group of Finland [1]: The right adjective for the Perussuomalaiset should be populist, Eurosceptic, and far-right
It is surprising how the foreign and local media treat the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*differently, even if The Guardian and El País of Madrid refer to the party as far right. Other adjectives are used, like Eurosceptic, nationalistic, and right-wing populist. In Finland, we rarely, if ever, see such descriptions of the PS. Yle News, for example,…
Finland’s youth gang story is a close relative to the USA stolen election lie story
Looking at the number of stories written about the so-called youth gang problem in Finland, it is interesting to note that reporting of the issue by Yle doubled compared with the eight months of the year. Stories about Sweden’s youth gang problem started to pick up in the fall after Sweden’s 11 September parliamentary election….
Exposing white Finnish privilege #91: The right to generalize and victimize minorities
THE STORY WAS UPDATED Those who are worried about the blow to the credibility of the security guards due to several scandals that even led to the death of a woman in Espoo are quick to point out one should not jump to conclusions and label all security guards and the sector. True, we should…
Media Monitoring Group of Finland*: The Avarn Security scandal reveals a lot about how the media frames minorities
THE STORY WAS UPDATED After reading 77 stories published by Yle (9 stories), Helsingin Sanomat (19), Iltalehti (6), Ilta-Sanomat (30), and MTV (13) about the Avarn Security scandal, only one story alleges racism as a factor in the working culture of security guards. Another story by Ilta-Sanomat, which wrote about excessive force, only mentioned once…