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.
Feb. 27
Rasistinen vai ei? Oikeusoppineet arvioivat perussuomalaisten maahanmuutto-ohjelma (YLE Kioski)
What’s wrong with this story? A story published by YLE Kioski asked a number of law professors if the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party program on immigration is racist. While the answers from five professors affirmed that the PS program was racist and/or unconstitutional, not a single non-Finnish professor was approached by YLE Kioski. One professor that could have given “a migrant view” is Jeremy Gould of Jyväskylä University. The fact that representatives of the majority culture, in this case white Finnish professors, are giving their expert opinions about what impacts migrants and minorities is nothing new. Too often migrants and minorities aren’t approached by the media in such cases. One of the journalists who did the story is Sean Ricks. The story mistakenly states that Veronika Honkasalo is an MP for the Left Alliance. She is a Helsinki city councilwoman who is running for parliament.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.