Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity please go to this link.
Apr. 13
Muutos 2011 racist ad (Vantaan Sanomat)
What’s wrong with this ad? Coded racism in the media is common but being outright racist, like the what is written on Jari Leino’s Muutos 2011 ad is less common. Even if Vantaan Sanomat is a community paper, certainly it must abide to some standards. The ad states: Finland is for the Finns; Somalia is for the Somalis; advance vote Somalis back to their country. The editor of Vantaan Sanomat, A-P Pietilä, apologized for the ad but was his apology crocodile tears? Pietilä has a long track record stretching back to the 1990s of having strong anti-immigration opinions. Was publishing Leino’s ad a “mistake” or a lowly stunt to get public attention for the paper and of Pietilä’s anti-immigration views through a far-right Muutos 2011 candidate? All of these are valid questions that the media hasn’t even bothered to ask.
