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.
Mar. 10
PAM: Ulkomaalaisomisteisiin ravintoloihin tarvitaan lisää valvonta (YLE)
What’s wrong with this story? Right from the onset of the news story, in the headline, there is a serious problem: In one shot PAM, a trade union that represents workers in the private service sector, claims that the authorities should have more resources to monitor restaurants owned by foreigners since they exploit their employees. While this may be true in some cases, the article generalizes and labels all restaurants run by foreigners. While there are foreign employers that abuse their employees, the same practice happens at restaurants owned by Finns as well. Singling out only foreign restaurants, and suggesting that they exploit employees, labels and stigmatizes all foreign restaurants. This is poor and careless journalism at its worst that reinforces prejudices against foreigners instead of bringing solutions to the table.
