A plaque at the Ministry of the Interior in Helsinki in March 2021. The Ministry of the Interior has confirmed its refusal to publish a report that was perceived to contain criticism of the Finns Party, according to reports. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
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THE MINISTRY of the Interior has forgone the publication of a report on affective polarisation authored by one of its officials and two university researchers.
Ultimately published by the University of Helsinki, the report was shelved by the ministry because it was perceived to contain criticism of the Finns Party, the populist right-wing member of the current ruling coalition that has been in charge of the Ministry of the Interior.
Affective polarisation is defined in the report as emotional and negative process of division between population groups with divergent views on social issues.
Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Ranne (PS) is serving as minister of the interior until the return of Mari Rantanen (PS).
The preface of the report reveals that the ministry notified the authors of what it regarded as excessively critical views of the ruling party and that the report should be amended in that respect. The ministry justified its request by arguing that publishing a report that criticises party politics or a single ruling party would fall outside its purview and would challenge the neutrality of ministry officials.
Jukka Aalto, a director at the Ministry of the Interior, on Tuesday confirmed the justification to both STT and Helsingin Sanomat.
“It’s not the duty of the ministry to criticise political decision makers, whoever they are. It’s not the duty of our officials to start evaluating political actors,” he said to the news agency, denying any suggestions of political steering. “Governments come and go and ministers come and go, and we always work for the government and ministry of the time. We have to be neutral.”
Helsingin Sanomat wrote that it is debatable whether the published report contains any direct criticism of the Finns Party.
“Suspicions about the media and research institutes are more widespread especially among supporters of the Finns Party,” it reads. “Research shows that Finns Party supporters do not consider hate speech a problem similarly to the supporters of other parties.”
“Finns Party supporters have a negative view of other parties, but Green League and Left Alliance supporters have an even more negative view of them.”
Arttu Saarinen, a co-author of the report from the University of Turku, told the newspaper that the final report is not the same as the version commented on by the Ministry of the Interior.
“Texts are always edited during the process. But our view is that it’s never been anything else than a completely normal research text, not a critique of a party or its politicians,” he said, adding that he regrets not insisting on a written agreement about the publication.
Atte Harjanne (Greens) on Tuesday gauged that political steering might have influenced the decision to forgo the publication.
“Parties and politicians across the political landscape have a key role in whether societal debate and decision-making becomes polarised. Reading the report you notice that it contains no criticism that would warrant the ministry’s refusal to publish it,” he stated in press release on Tuesday.
“What is clear in any case is that political censorship of researchers has no place in a society like Finland.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
