The Court of Appeal in Rovaniemi today upheld the decision of a lower court to convict and fine journalist Johanna Vehkoo for insulting a local politician from Oulu.
On her private Facebook page Vehkoo, founder of the Long Play investigative journalism web magazine, called Junes Lokka (Ind) a “Nazi clown” and a “racist.” The Oulu District Court found that Vehkoo used these words to denigrate and insult Loka, which fulfilled the characteristics of defamation.
The journalist was initially sentenced to 15 day-fines which she appealed to the higher court. She must pay the far-right politician €200 for suffering (sic) he experienced, and also pay his €6,000 legal fees.
Junes Lokka has himself been convicted in court of ethnic agitation for uploading a video of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic speech to social media. He also has a reputation for insulting people online including calling them “fucking idiots,” “whores,” and “disturbed lunatics” according to Journalisti magazine.
The Finnish Union of Journalists calls Wednesday’s verdict “unreasonable for many reasons.” The union, which has been supporting Vehkoo in her legal battles, views the trial as a freedom of speech issue.
Chairman Hanne Aho says the court should have taken into consideration the context of various forms of harassment that Vehkoo receives as a journalist.
“I’m not going to speculate on Lokka’s motive for prosecuting. However, filing criminal reports against journalists is an unfortunate form of harassment in the world, which is an attempt to silence reporters” she said.
