>“IPI is deeply alarmed by today’s decision, which poses a serious threat to the ability of journalists in Finland to work freely”, Trionfi said. “It is unacceptable and absurd that journalists in a European democracy like Finland are facing imprisonment for doing their job and reporting on an issue of massive public interest, which the discussion about the activities and powers of Finland’s security agencies undoubtedly was.
“This investigation itself – which has dragged on for years – had already cast a shadow over Finnish reporting on national security issues. These charges will now worsen this chilling effect, jeoparadizing the public’s right to be informed on issues of tremendous importance to society. IPI calls on Finnish authorities to swiftly drop all charges against the journalists in this case, and offer reassurance that upholding press freedom remains a priority in Finland.”
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Could you expand on your thinking?
As it is, there is a perception amongst many, that certain media are a little too friendly towards certain parties, and particularly the state-at-large. Even when funding said media is obligatory. It is not de facto state control though.
I am not so sure about that. Press freedom is a complex matter. Sone curbs on the press or society are desirable, such as laws of defamation. It is, taken literally, a restriction on freedom. All is a matter of degree.
A good reminder to the press that their mandate to examine power comes from the people. Same as the defence forces. They have a fine line to walk when it comes to digging in secrets related to national defence.
That’s bad, very bad, the idea to prosecute them for reporting publicly available information is insane, it attacks the very foundation of press freedom in Finland.
I guess they upset somebody big and this is to punish them.
It is a charge, not a conviction. I don’t know the facts but it seems like an overreaction.
This is actually a simple case. If the information the journalists acquired was indeed from public sources, the charges will be dismissed. If they were actually secret documents, the journalists will be judged and receive sentences, according to Finnish law.
If I remember correctly, they actually published pictures of papers stamped with a red stamp as state secrets, which would be against Finnish law. It may however be so, that the pictures of the documents were forged or manipulated somehow. But there were no indication about this in the story. This would be against journalist ethics, but not against the law. There is a separate board evaluating this kind of cases about journalist ethics.
In my personal opinion the incident in whole just underlines the extreme sensationalist, unprofessional and child-like thinking of these journalists. It might even be that the journalists wanted to provoke response from the state, which they succeeded in. And obviously there is no way the state could just ignore someone publishing state secrets, so that’s it.
If one is ready to reveal state secrets on a newspaper so that foreign nations get their hands on that information, then they must also be ready to face the consequences. If stamps that say a document is classified wouldn’t mean anything, why would they even be used? What these three members of the media have done is espionage, and they should get fitting sentences from it.
State secrets of the Finnish Defence Forces are not something everyone should have access to. Seeing different medias write about this saying that it’s violating the medias’ and people’s rights is just idiotic.
8 comments
>“IPI is deeply alarmed by today’s decision, which poses a serious threat to the ability of journalists in Finland to work freely”, Trionfi said. “It is unacceptable and absurd that journalists in a European democracy like Finland are facing imprisonment for doing their job and reporting on an issue of massive public interest, which the discussion about the activities and powers of Finland’s security agencies undoubtedly was.
“This investigation itself – which has dragged on for years – had already cast a shadow over Finnish reporting on national security issues. These charges will now worsen this chilling effect, jeoparadizing the public’s right to be informed on issues of tremendous importance to society. IPI calls on Finnish authorities to swiftly drop all charges against the journalists in this case, and offer reassurance that upholding press freedom remains a priority in Finland.”
[deleted]
Could you expand on your thinking?
As it is, there is a perception amongst many, that certain media are a little too friendly towards certain parties, and particularly the state-at-large. Even when funding said media is obligatory. It is not de facto state control though.
I am not so sure about that. Press freedom is a complex matter. Sone curbs on the press or society are desirable, such as laws of defamation. It is, taken literally, a restriction on freedom. All is a matter of degree.
A good reminder to the press that their mandate to examine power comes from the people. Same as the defence forces. They have a fine line to walk when it comes to digging in secrets related to national defence.
That’s bad, very bad, the idea to prosecute them for reporting publicly available information is insane, it attacks the very foundation of press freedom in Finland.
I guess they upset somebody big and this is to punish them.
It is a charge, not a conviction. I don’t know the facts but it seems like an overreaction.
This is actually a simple case. If the information the journalists acquired was indeed from public sources, the charges will be dismissed. If they were actually secret documents, the journalists will be judged and receive sentences, according to Finnish law.
If I remember correctly, they actually published pictures of papers stamped with a red stamp as state secrets, which would be against Finnish law. It may however be so, that the pictures of the documents were forged or manipulated somehow. But there were no indication about this in the story. This would be against journalist ethics, but not against the law. There is a separate board evaluating this kind of cases about journalist ethics.
In my personal opinion the incident in whole just underlines the extreme sensationalist, unprofessional and child-like thinking of these journalists. It might even be that the journalists wanted to provoke response from the state, which they succeeded in. And obviously there is no way the state could just ignore someone publishing state secrets, so that’s it.
If one is ready to reveal state secrets on a newspaper so that foreign nations get their hands on that information, then they must also be ready to face the consequences. If stamps that say a document is classified wouldn’t mean anything, why would they even be used? What these three members of the media have done is espionage, and they should get fitting sentences from it.
State secrets of the Finnish Defence Forces are not something everyone should have access to. Seeing different medias write about this saying that it’s violating the medias’ and people’s rights is just idiotic.