MFRR in Focus: Aftermath of Finland’s unprecedented state secrets conviction

Finland, "the land of the free press", made headlines in January this year, when two journalists were convicted of disclosing state secrets in the infamous Finnish Intelligence Research Center case.

In December 2017, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s leading daily newspaper, published an article about the activities of the Finnish Intelligence Research Center. The piece was the first in a series of articles aiming to shed light on plans to give Finland’s security services greater powers to carry out surveillance and covert operations domestically and abroad.

Soon after the publication, authorities opened an investigation into the newspaper and the authors of the article. Five years later, following a lengthy investigation and trial, the Helsinki District Court convicted journalist Laura Halminen and her colleague Tuomo Pietiläinen of disclosing state secrets.

On this podcast episode, we will have a closer look at the chain of events which lead to the landmark conviction, and how the long and unprecedented legal proceedings have affected press freedom in Finland and abroad.

Guests: Salla Nazarenko, International Affairs Specialist at the Union of Journalists in Finland and Riku Neuvonen, Associate Professor of Media Law, Researcher and Senior Lecturer of Public Law at Tampere University and University of Helsinki.

Producer and Host: Ronja Koskinen, Press Freedom Officer at IPI.

Editor: Ronja Koskinen, Press Freedom Officer at IPI and Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI.