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…
Tag: tabloids
Finland’s tabloids are the worst when it comes to spreading bigotry and racism
Racism sells. Us and them sell. Spreading and reinforcing prejudices sells. Bigotry and racism sell. Biased journalism sells. These examples sum up pretty well how tabloids like Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat make money by reinforcing old hatreds and suspicions of Others. One of their latest stories on the far-right vigilante group, the Soldiers of Odin, is…
African woman killed by her former white Finnish husband in the city of Lahti
THE STORY WAS UPDATED A 53-year-old white Finnish male fatally shot his African wife in Lahti on Sunday, according to tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. The couple had been separated and were at fighting in court over legal custody of their only child. The woman was 38. The woman was allegedly from Zambia. The couple got married in…
Tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat should apologize to the migrant and minority community for their racist stories
When I started my career in journalism in Finland in the mid-1980s, I was warned never to use the term huijaa, which means to cheat, scam or deceive. “Don’t ever use this term unless you want to find yourself in court for defamation,” my former colleague from Apu magazine warned.
Finnish tabloid media’s dubious “achievment” is spreading intolerance
The Finnish tabloid media has the dubious “honor” for having spread intolerance in Finland by giving populists and racists inflated respectability and importance. If we look at some of the billboards that tabloids published in the 1990s, it’s clear that they were responsible for spreading racism and prejudice in Finland. Take for instance the most…