Finnish Prime Minister Suspected of Corruption and Media Censorship
An article published on November 30 by the Finnish weekly reference Suomen Kuvalehti accusing Prime Minister Juha Sipilä of illegally lobbying and censuring public television has prompted Finnish citizens to accuse their Prime Minister of corruption. Sipilä is accused of pressuring YLE, Finland’s national broadcasting system, implicating him in a conflict of interest case. While he adamantly denies it, Sipilä recently arranged an agreement between a national company and his family-owned company. On November 11, the Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy, headed by Sipilä, announced that it would pay €100 million to Terrafame, the state owned nickel mine. However, Terrafame recently signed a €500,000 contract with Katera Steel, a company owned by Prime Minister Sipilä’s cousins and uncles.
Salla Vuorikoski, the journalist who wrote the article describing Sipilä’s conflict of interest in this transaction, received an email from the prime minister within an hour of its publication. After protesting the accusations and emailing sixteen more times, Sipilä declared, “My confidence in YLE is now zero, which is the level of your confidence in me. We are tied.”
Many in Finland have interpreted Sipilä’s actions as an attempt to restrict free press. While Sipilä has admitted that he let himself get carried away due to the accusations against his family, many are not satisfied with this justification. YLE journalist Susanna Sjösledt states, “They do not seem to understand the value of media pluralism, nor the importance of the public service.” Fellow journalist Ari-Pekka Sirviö shares this concern and has criticized Sipilä, an ex-businessman and millionaire, whom he thinks “governs this country like a company.” Similarly, Li Anderson, the chairperson of the Left Alliance, a left-wing political party, has demanded that the emails Sipilä sent to the editor-in-chief Vuorikoski be published.
Even though Prime Minister Sipilä claimed that he has no intention to restrict freedom of the press, there is evidence that he does. Pekka Ervasti, a former political correspondent at YLE, insinuated that the newspaper has, under Sipilä, been prohibited from printing some stories. Even recently, the presenter of the satirical program at YLE received both warnings and threats from the government, both of which were withdrawn, to persuade him not to discuss the article. The YLE senior editorial staff ultimately ended up deciding not to publish another article about the contract.
Although Sipilä has addressed these accusations, it remains to be seen if he will continue to have a considerable influence over the media, as he does now.