When I moved to Finland over forty years ago, there were only about 10,000 foreigners living in the country. The biggest national group were the Swedes, who were mostly Finns who had become naturalized citizens of that country. One of the questions we asked back then was about the level of racism in Finland.
Tag: self-censorship
Mike Hofman: Media censorship in Finland during the Cold War
The thesis below published in 2014 by Mike Hofman. It is a comprehensive report on how censorship and self-censorship happened in Finland during the Cold War. It is surprising how Finland has sidestepped this issue and thrown it in the dustbin of history. As the old saying states, if we don’t know or deny our…
Finland’s standing in global press freedom ranking likely to suffer another downgrade
Finland’s standing in global press freedom rankings will take another blow this year after the police carried out without a court order a Helsingin Sanomat reporter Laura Halminen’s personal and company phones, computer and iPad, and a large number of USP memory sticks, reports YLE News. The search was carried out after Finland’s largest daily published leaked classified documents from the secretive Defense Forces’ Intelligence Research Center.
Exceptionalism is our greatest enemy in promoting social equality and press freedom in Finland
I used to comment mock the Swedes before for their exceptionalism. The argument is simple – Sweden is such “a perfect” society that social no-nos like racism don’t exist. The same exceptionalism that we may see in Sweden is alive and kicking in Finland, too. Exceptionalism is everywhere and you know it if you are Other.
The oddly unspoken topic of racism
“Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.” Pierre Berton (1920-2004) Many visitors have come and gone on Migrant Tales. Those that jump the MT ship the soonest are those who choose to justify a…