Finnish newspaper reprimanded over sexual harrasment story

[Tiriol]

Source of the story, also including links to relevant news.

HS REPRIMANDED BY MEDIA ETHICS WATCHDOGS OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT STORY

The Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN), an organisation which evaluates complaints of lapses in journalistic practice, ruled against Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday over an article concerning allegations of sexual harassment in Parliament. Two Members of Parliament who complained about the article in question say that they might also consider seeking some other type of recompense in the matter.
The story in question appeared on January 27th. Seven male MPs were mentioned in the story by name, with photographs. It was alleged that they had behaved inappropriately toward women.
Five of the MPs, Mika Lintilä (Centre), Pekka Vilkuna (Centre), Tapani Mäkinen (Nat. Coalition Party), Esa Lahtela (SDP) and Tero Rönni (SDP) complained to the council.
The council rejected Vilkuna's complaint, but found merit in all of the others. The vote was 8 to 2 in each case.

JSN found that Helsingin Sanomat did not have sufficient evidence to back up the claims that it had made. The body saw the articles in question as putting a negative label on the individuals, and containing sweeping generalisations.
Editor-in-Chief Janne Virkkunen responded to the complaint by saying that numerous anonymous sources, who had spoken of sexual harassment in Parliament, mentioned the same Members of Parliament by name.
According to Virkkunen, the paper had good reason to promise anonymity to the sources, because using their own names might have cost them their jobs.
JSN emphasised that it does not want to prevent the media from using anonymous sources, but that in such a case, the medium should check the accuracy of the story through other means.
The council also noted that while Helsingin Sanomat had allowed all of the men who were mentioned to speak their mind, giving them a voice did not mitigate the harm that they suffered.
Two members of JSN, Professor Jaana Hallamaa and researcher Tarja Liuha, voted against each of the reprimands. They felt that the story was an important one, and that the anonymity of the sources was justified.

The complaint of Pekka Vilkuna was rejected on the basis of statements that he made to the newspaper. Vilkuna urged women to laugh along with the Parliamentarians, suggesting that those who cannot take such behaviour "should reconsider their choice of profession".
The Council for Mass Media in Finland found that with this statement, Vilkuna showed that his behaviour reinforces claims of sexual harassment.

"Not all of our decisions were right. We must now re-evaluate our own action", said Janne Virkkunen after the decision came.
Will there be any changes in policy, or was this an isolated case?
"Journalism is composed of individual cases", Virkkunen answered, and insisted that the JSN decision will not impede the production of good journalism.

Two of the MPs, Tapani Mäkinen and Mika Lintilä, said that they would take no further action in the matter.
Esa Lahtela and Pekka Vilkuna said that they might seek other means of recompense, although when they made the complaint they gave assurances that they would not turn the matter into a court case.
"Time will tell. I will never say anything else to Helsingin Sanomat", Vilkuna noted.
"I have not thought about the matter it depends on whether or not it is made sufficiently clear in the paper that the accusations are baseless", Lahtela said.
Tero Rönni said in an interview with the Finnish News Agency STT that the article permanently tarnished the Members of Parliament who were mentioned in it.
Two MPs mentioned in the article, Lyly Rajala (Nat. Coalition Party) and Lauri Oinonen (Centre) have asked police to investigate the case. The matter is expected to go to prosecutors for consideration in the coming weeks.