Tag: Finnish media

“Youth gang violence” is a political stunt based on lies

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I would go as far as to predict that after the election in April, the youth gang issue will disappear. It was the case in Oulu when Finland became hysterical about sexual assaults committed by migrants.

We’re in the same situation today. True, we have to address social problems with good social policy. Fortunately, Finland has a comprehensive welfare state. Still, parties like the Perusuomalaiset (PS)* and the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), who want to slash such spending if they win the election, lead us towards a cycle of exclusion and deception.

Remember what happened in Oulu in 2008-2009?

Let me refresh your memory. The media, politicians, and even the police caved into their exaggerated lies by turning an important issue into a storm in a teacup.

Every sexual assault is too much, period. However, if we look at the coverage of these cases, we see the same problem as in 2018-2019 with the so-called “rising” of youth gang violence that Yle and other media are spiking.

Similarities with the Oulu sexual assault cases: parliamentary elections, gang violence, a winning issue in Sweden’s election, and lack of correct checks and balances by the media and politicians.

For the police, it is also a winning issue. It ensures that more funds will be earmarked for them.

Have any of you seen any statistics about youth crime violence?

Why are the police and politicians holding back?

Considering that Finland’s gang “problem” is only a drop in the bucket compared to Sweden, the debate has revealed some nasty things about politicians and the media: washing our hands of the problem, simplifying and scapegoating migrants and minorities, and outright racism. President Sauli Niinistö, who never has anything positive to say about Muslims and people of color, joined the populist bandwagon over a week ago. Shameful.

Despite all the fear-mongering, it is a good sign that papers like Helsingin Sanomat are questioning the populism and hardline stance to solve the problem by parties like the PS and Kokoomus.

Quoting David Saudsdal, a sociologist at Lund University, he claims there is no proof that tougher laws against gang violence in Denmark have worked.

Continue reading ““Youth gang violence” is a political stunt based on lies”

Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Framing youth gang violence by MTV

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When the media speaks of youth gang violence, it usually spikes it with provocative adjectives and fear-mongering. MTV’s interview and good comments by Elina Pekkarinen, ombudswoman for children, were exceptions.

If you want a good example of how the media frames this topic, look at the picture behind the host. It reads “violence” next to a fisted hand that looks like it has grease. Is it the fist of a black Finn?

Thank you, Pekkarinen, for making the following comment: “We have to acknowledge at the same time minors who are discriminated against and victims of racism; [if this is the case there is no point wondering why this phenomenon exists.”

STATEMENT: Yle should stop picking on minority youths and stick to facts

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It was in 2020 when Helsingin Sanomat published a big story about the dangers of youth gang violence in Helsinki. The story received a lot of criticism because it spread the misinformation that youth crime is rising in Helsinki and Greater Helsinki. 

It isn’t surprising that the state-owned broadcaster, Yle, has spread the issue, especially after Sweden’s parliamentary election, which was won by the far-right Sweden Democrats, which took up youth gang violence as one of their main campaign issues. 

The tactic by the Sweden Democrats and the right-wing Moderates paid off.  

Considering Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April, it should not surprise us that the far-right Finns Party and its National Coalition Party partner are feverishly searching for a successful campaign issue that centers on migrants and minorities. 

In all three parliamentary elections last decade, the PS’s good showing was boosted by some news involving asylum seekers, mainly Muslims:

  • The 2011 parliamentary election, when the PS won 39 seats from 5 previously, was helped by reporting that was more amazed at the new racist kid on the political block. Even parties like the Social Democrats started copying the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric. PS rising political “stars” like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Erola, Timo Soini, and others got their places in the sun. Things were so bad back then that Islamophobes were invited to give their opinions on talk shows about immigration policy..
  • In the 2015 parliamentary election, when the PS duplicated its 2011 result by gaining 38 seats, a rape happened in the Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila one month before the election. The crime got a lot of attention in the media, and Yle went as far as to ask people of the Somali community why “they always rape.” The police also helped by labeling the suspects “people of foreign decent,” even if they were born in Finland. Why was it essential for the public to know the latter?
  • The PS got another present in the 2019 election when suspects, mainly asylum seekers, were accused of sexually harassing minors. Even if the media, and the police, who warned people to stay away from foreigners, reached hysterical levels, the PS, with the aid of parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), promised to get tough on migrants. The PS almost won the parliamentary election in April. 

Is youth gang violence in Finland one of the winning campaign issues for April’s parliamentary election?

So far, Yle has brought the issue to the public through A-studio and Monday’s 8:30 pm news. Who is making such editorial decisions? 

The Yle reporter introduces the topic: “Shootings in public places, bragging about criminals, and showing it on social media indicate that street gang criminal activity has grown in Finland, according to the police.” Source: Yle

Many questions arise from such reporting. Some of the main ones are if gang violence is a problem, like in Sweden and why it is an issue today. Doesn’t the media bear any responsibility for labeling all minority youths? 

Continue reading “STATEMENT: Yle should stop picking on minority youths and stick to facts”

Ilta-Sanomat’s message hasn’t changed in the past 30 years: Islam and refugees are a threat to Finland

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Ever wondered why tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat continue to publish racist stories? When the first Somalis came to Finland in the early 1990s, the tabloid had a field day (see billboards below). Imagine headlines like “Somalis will remain in Finland,” “Somalis tricked (authorities) to get asylum,” and twenty years later, “10,000 illegal refugees will come this year to Finland.”

As we all know, there is no such thing as an “illegal” refugee. Refugees are refugees, period.

The latest story by Ilta-Sanomat is on EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, who said something positive about Islam on her visit to the United Arab Emirates (see tweet below).

What does the Ilta-Sanomat story reveal about anti-Muslim racism in Finland? It shows that Finnish tabloids and the media have successfully framed Muslims as a threat to Finland. If you say something positive about Muslims, you are a traitor and must be crazy.

Ilta-Sanomat in 2017…
Ilta-Sanomat in 1996…
…and in 1994
Continue reading “Ilta-Sanomat’s message hasn’t changed in the past 30 years: Islam and refugees are a threat to Finland”

Why do the Perussuomalaiset speak in code when referring to Muslims?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Throughout the years, far-right parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have in recent years mainly used code words to refer to Muslims. Some of the most common ones are sexual offenders, overrepresented in crime statistics, asylum seekers, and, now the latest, vieraskieli, or “people who don’t speak Finnish as their mother tongue.”

One article published last week by Helsingin Sanomat highlighted the issue.

Russian and Estonian speakers were the most prominent vieraskieli groups in the story about Espoo schools. Arabic speakers were the third-biggest mother language group.

When far-right politicians like Riikka Purra use the term vieraskieli, it means in code Muslim and people of color.

One researcher pointed out that using the term vieraskieli is safer and more sanitized to express anti-Muslim hatred. It may help you avoid ethnic agitation charges.

Many understand that the Finnish media is part of the country’s racism problem. Any sensible person can see that the media rarely asks racialized people their opinions, never mind experts’ views on issues like racism and discrimination.

One overbearing message of parties like the PS and the near-silence and flirting of parties like the National Coalition Party is that people who are granted asylum are portrayed as a threat to Finnish values and culture.

Racism is deeply ingrained in Finnish culture. Excluding other voices means that little to nothing will change. Institutional racism must be challenged head-on.

I believe that if Finland’s newsrooms weren’t so white, they would write about racialized people differently.

It would be a big blow to the racist narrative of parties like the PS, which always label racialized groups with suspicion.

Finland’s issues with Nazi flags and a too often biased and insensitive media of minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales published on Tuesday comments by Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the 1,100-strong Jewish Community of Helsinki, concerning the Helsinki district court’s ruling that carrying Nazi Germany flags in public was not ethnic agitation.

If there is one group of people who have a lot to say about Nazi flags and the Holocaust, they are the Jews and other minorities like the Roma.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

As usual, the news in Finland about the district court’s ruling occurred in a bubble between white Finns, but to our surprise, the media did not approach one Jew or member of the Roma community for comment.

Migrant Tales did interview Nadbornik on Tuesday and asked him if newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat and others had approached him. His answer was “no.”

After Migrant Tales published his comments, Kirkko ja kaupunki did a story on Wednesday citing Nadbornik’s views.

“Displaying a swastika flag is a demand for genocide,” he was quoted as saying.

The Finnish media coverage of the district court’s ruling on the Nazi flag reveals ignorance and disinterest in the Holocaust, racism, and equity issues. Shame on the media for their incomplete coverage of an important social topic that impacts minorities.

While it may surprise some, victims of racism are usually not interviewed by the media but by white authorities who have never experienced racism.

Today is a good time for the media to wake up and challenge those structures that encourage biased reporting.

University of Eastern Finland 14 May: Journalism in times of Covid-19: Representations of Latin America in Finnish Media

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Tapahtumapäivämäärä:14.5.2021Aika:13:00–14:30Tapahtumapaikka:OnlineLisätietoja:ZoomAdd to calendar:GoogleOutlookiCal

Welcome to a webinar organized by the Research Group Environment, Society and Development in Latin America (ESDLA) at the University of Eastern Finland.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have the challenging task of gathering and distributing accurate and reliable information. This task becomes more critical and demanding when journalists create international news coverage of distant crises. In recent months, Brazil, Mexico, and other Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries have been in the sights of world journalism due to the rise in the numbers of contagion, deaths, and the different responses and strategies of the governments in turn. In this round table, we have invited several Latin American researchers based in Finland to discuss how the Finnish media has displayed the consequences of the pandemic in LAC countries. How can specific representations affect popular ideas and normalize preconceptions of such distant crises? What is the role of social science researchers in creating more accurate and reliable information, and what are their limitations?  Join us in the discussion!

This roundtable is a continuation of the collaboration that ESDLA seeks to establish with researchers and the public interested in Latin America. In 2020, we launched a Blog series on the consequences of the pandemic in the region. The ESDLA Blog Special Issue: Latin America and the Caribbean in times of Covid19, had 13 posts so far covering the following countries: Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, and Chile. We also organized in November 2020 the Post-pandemic LAC: Pathways towards ecological and just futures in Latin America and the Caribbean webinar.

More info and registration: [email protected]. The link to participation will be sent to all registered by email.

Participants of the round table:

Nadia Nava Contreras is a project researcher at the John Morton Center for North American Studies at the University of Turku, where she is part of the Cubaflux project that investigates visual urban transformations in Post-Deténte Havana. She is also a doctoral candidate in political history at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation investigates diplomatic encounters and mutual imaginaries in the relations between Mexico and Finland during the 20th Century.

Florencia Quesada Avendaño, PhD, Docent is a trained historian, currently Adjunct Professor in Latin American Studies at the University of Helsinki. She has been a researcher and lecturer in Global Development Studies, World Cultures and at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS), UH. Quesada’s research interest includes cultural urban and architectural history, sustainable tourism, socio-spatial segregation and urban violence in Central America.

Leonardo Custódio is an Afro-Brazilian postdoctoral researcher at Åbo Akademi University and coordinator of the Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance. He is also coordinator of the Activist Research Network and editor-in-chief of raster.fi, website of the Finnish Anti-Racist Research Network. Custódio is co-editor of Research Traditions in Dialogue: Communication Studies in Europe and Latin America (2020, Media XXI) and author of Favela Media Activism: Counterpublics for Human Rights in Brazil (2017, Lexington Books).

Germán Quimbayo Ruiz is from Bogotá, Colombia. He recently finished his Ph.D. in Environmental Policy at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. His work and research focus on environment/society relationships and their interplay with urbanization and socio-ecological inequalities, exploring their role in spatial planning practices in defense of commons such as biodiversity. Before his Ph.D. studies, he worked with local environmental organizations and institutions in Colombia.

Mariana Galvão Lyra is a sustainability researcher and consultant. Currently she is a project researcher at the business school of the University of Eastern Finland.  Her main research interests are sustainable science, stakeholder management, company-community conflicts, and activism against mining projects, especially in developing countries. In particular, she is interested in shedding light on the groups fighting for social and environmental justice.

Violeta Gutiérrez Zamora?is a sociologist and Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies of the University of Eastern Finland. In her research, she focuses on rural organizations, community forestry, feminist political ecology, and eco-governmentality in Mexico.?

What threatens Finland’s Nordic welfare state? Follow the racism, stupid.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is a sense of déjà vu as the municipal elections in Finland near on April 18. Once again, the media is not questioning or challenging the toxic message of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, but showing its usual tacit approval.

The most notable examples of this type of approval demonstrated by the media are silence and inaction.

As Muslim activist Julie Pascoet stated, silence is not only a political statement but perpetuating white privilege and inequality. .

Source: Twitter (2018)

State-owned news outlets like Yle continue fueling the PS stranglehold on the country by stating that they will make significant gains in the municipal elections.

Opinion polls may indicate this to be the case, but where is the critical journalism?

Continue reading “What threatens Finland’s Nordic welfare state? Follow the racism, stupid.”

Don’t give racist charlatans a megaphone

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Which Finnish politicians are the country’s biggest charlatans? We all know them by name. Finland’s media has learned to pushback more than before and not give a megaphone to political con artists. It is called media responsibility.

Who are these charlatans?

They are the ones who always pick on the disadvantaged threatening them with a life of social exclusion and rejection. You know, the ethnonationalists, the Finnish white supremacists, Finland’s biggest opposition party, are prime examples.

The Foreign Student was one of the first critical newsletters that spoke out against the discriminatory practices of the Aliens’ Office under Eila Kännö. Too many Finns see the ideal foreigner as a person who shuts up and smiles. This newsletter was published in April 1981.

I don’t know whom you think has spread the most racism in Finland. Is it Jussi Halla-aho? Riikka Purra? Laura Huhtasaari? Veikko Vallin? Ano Turtiainen? All the above? Or are these politicians only the opportunists emerging from deeply rooted and entrenched Finnish racism?

Apart from being political con artists, all of them lie outright because most of their campaign promises are unconstitutional.

Some of them are so racist that they don’t have a clue how racist they are.

If they have a tough time figuring out this fact, then we must help them to see the light and their shameful deception.

Mayday, Mayday! Two women and six children entering Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Following on and off news about the repatriation of Finnish citizens from the al-Hol refugee camp raises a lot of questions about our society. The opposition, namely the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party (NCP), are working overtime to score brownie points with the voters and fearmongering.

The commotion is now stirred by the repatriation of two women and six children. Considering that Finland is a country that claims to abide by social justice and the rule of law, some politicians’ behavior is shameful, self-centered, and cowardly.

Even if the path to repatriating the women and their children is a winding and difficult road for the government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin, the best matter that could be done is to repatriate all the Finnish citizens.

Why?

According to a statement by the ministry of foreign affairs, “Under section 22 of the Constitution of Finland, Finnish public authorities are obligated to safeguard the basic rights of the Finnish children interned in the camps insofar as this is possible.  The basic rights of the children interned in the al-Hol camps can be safeguarded only by repatriating them to Finland.”

Forgetting that in our society, a person is considered innocent before proven guilty, politicians from the PS, NCP, and Supo, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service are busily in lynch-mob mode.

The tweet below by Orpo on Sunday reads: “The repatriated adults [two women] are, according to Supo, a security risk to Finland. The government has the responsibility to ensure that those who committed crimes and involved in terrorist activities face justice and that the safety of the Finns isn’t endangered.”

Has anyone noticed how National Coalition Party head Petteri Orpo changed his look using different glasses and haircut? Orpo before (left), with less hair, and on the right with more har and thicker glasses. What kind of image do the two pictures evoke? Despite these image stunts, the National Coalition Party continues to do poorly in opinion polls. Sources: Yle and Helsingin Sanomat.
Continue reading “Mayday, Mayday! Two women and six children entering Finland”