The law has been tightened, thanks to which those who experience harassment and threats because of their work can get justice more widely than before.
Police last week caught up with Iltalehti's columnist and TV presenter Sanna Ukkolaa the man who had been bothering him for several weeks.
According to Ukkola, it was a rare aggressive troublemaker.
“He sent death and rape threats, pictures of a gun, dickpics (penis pictures) and made gasping calls at night.”
HS has seen some of the messages and pictures Ukkola received. In his messages, the man said when he was an asylum seeker, when Pekka Haavisto. In calls, he addressed Ukkola by name and shouted threateningly.
After receiving a child pornography picture from the man, Ukkola filed a criminal complaint. According to Ukkola, the disturbance was caused by the protection of several different prepaid subscriptions.
Crime Commissioner Tommi Lehtonen The Helsinki police confirms that a case like that, involving a journalist, is under investigation by the police.
The man was released after being arrested and questioned for about a day, and his home has been searched. During the interrogation, the man said that the messaging that had been going on for weeks was a whim and promised to stop it, Lehtonen says.
According to Lehtonen, three criminal reports have been registered in the preliminary investigation of the case: illegal threat, sexual harassment and distribution of an image depicting a child sexually.
Ukkola says that he does not easily report the feedback he receives. According to him, it is worth blocking annoying commenters on Some.
Catch quickly right after a crime report is quite rare.
Many people who experience threats and harassment because of their public work have the experience that the police may react evasively to threatening messages.
There was a precedent for threatening and harassing journalists Linda Pelkonen case from 2015. Pelkonen was working in Uuu Finland at the time.
He became the target of an extensive hate campaign after he asked in a news story, at the request of his boss, why the police disclosed the ethnic background of the suspected rapists in their press release. Pelkonen's contact information was shared online and he received heaps of insulting and threatening messages.
He filed a criminal complaint, but the case did not go to court at first.
The prosecutor stopped investigating the case at the request of the police, because the possible crimes were considered minor. The prosecutor justified the decision, among other things, by the fact that no more than a fine could be expected for possible crimes and that the public interest did not require an investigation of the case.
The basis was also that the journalist has to endure tougher criticism than usual because of his work.
Pelkonen complained about the matter to the Attorney General, as a result of which the legal process that eventually led to the verdicts began.
Pretrial investigation may be stopped in the middle due to, for example, the costs of the investigation and the low level of punishment for the suspected crime. Tracking those operating on anonymous online platforms is tedious, though not impossible.
After the tightening of the Sexual Offenses Act, which entered into force at the beginning of 2023, sexual harassment can also be interpreted based on, for example, sending a picture or a message.
Since October 2021, illegal threats related to work have been a crime subject to official prosecution. It means that the prosecutor can bring charges even without the involvement of the person concerned.
Painting, on the other hand, is not being criminalized despite numerous proposals, announced the Minister of Justice Leena Meri (ps) last summer.
Criminal law professor Minna Kimpimäki The University of Lapland says that alongside the tightening of legislation, general awareness of digital violence and harassment has nevertheless grown.
Evaluating cases in court is often difficult. In evaluating an illegal threat, the formulation of the threat is important. The court may also assess whether the target of the threat has taken measures to protect himself.
“However, the law does not require that he has been seriously afraid, but that he has a justified reason to be afraid,” says Kimpimäki.
Editor of Iltalehti Eastern Wilderness made criminal reports about the threatening comments he started receiving last summer in private messages and online forums after writing about basic Finns and racism.
“There were a lot of disparaging messages and thoughts about what they were going to do to me,” says Erämaa.
Erämaa felt that the police did not take the matter very seriously and did not consider online forums where threats were presented to be taken seriously. Erämaa withdrew some of the criminal reports, but some of them are under investigation.
Statistics Finland according to one in four Finns has experienced digital violence or harassment online and the phenomenon is growing. Public service workers are especially often targeted by it.
Research according to the most common consequence of harassment is the restriction of one's own activities, and only a few people report harassment to the police.
Last year, about the hacking of those working in the public domain a discussion arose having been the target of social bullying Jasmin Voutilainen after death.
There are still no visib
le signs of the phenomenon abating, and it affects many areas of life. Ice hockey SM league club Ilves said last week that he filed a criminal complaint because of the threat to kill his player and his family.
Portion Boys band Tiina Forsby started receiving threats and misogyny on online forums a year ago after the band performed in the New Music competition.
He reported the threats he received to the police and also hired a lawyer for the criminal process. Forsby says he felt the police listened to him and immediately took the case seriously.
“My big wish is that those who wrote death threats and other worst messages would be sentenced. It would be a good example of the fact that you can't write everything there, and that you can be held responsible for it.”
#Harassment #child #pornography #straw #Sanna #Ukkola #filed #criminal #complaint #troublemaker #man #arrested
