Lawsuits | The trial of the HS police case began – Prosecutor: The case branded the policeman as a criminal

Helsinki On Monday, the trial started in the district court regarding the police case of Helsingin Sanomat about three years ago.

The prosecutor demands punishment for, among other things, the story’s author and editor-in-chief. All the accused denied having committed any crime.

Under the guise of a badge of office -titled article was published on October 24, 2021. It dealt with the actions of a policeman who worked in the sexual crime investigation of the Helsinki Police Department.

According to the article, the policeman sought a sexual relationship with a young man. Before that, the young man had been a victim as a teenager in a sex crime case, which the same policeman was investigating in his work.

The man admitted to a sexual relationship with a young man in the HS story. According to him, it was a voluntary relationship between two adults.

According to the story, during the house search, it turned out that the policeman’s own devices had pictures and videos of scantily clad children or young people.

The man was suspected of having committed a crime due to the possession of the images and videos. Criminal suspicions concerning them have expired.

Prosecutors according to the policeman has been recognizable from HS’s story, and it has contained false information or hints about him.

According to the indictment, readers easily confuse the different aspects of HS’s case with each other and get the wrong impression that the policeman committed a crime by associating with the person concerned in the case he had previously investigated or in some other way.

According to the prosecutor, it would have been permissible to neutrally report the case of a policeman’s sexual relationship with the person concerned, when the purpose is to evaluate the appropriateness of the police’s actions. On the other hand, in the case of HS, the matter was handled sensationally, in the prosecutor’s opinion, by suggesting that the policeman had committed a crime.

Prosecutor demands punishments for gross defamation, gross dissemination of information infringing private life, and editor-in-chief violation.

The policeman who was the subject of the case is in the position of the interested party, i.e. the victim of possible crimes.

The prosecutor demands punishments for the author of the story because of the writing Paavo Teittineneditor-in-chief To Antero Muka as well as to the former editor-in-chief Kaius Niemewho no longer works for HS.

In addition, the accused is a fourth person outside the HS department. According to the charges, he is the “Niko” who appeared in the HS case, with whom the policeman had a relationship.

Teittis, Mukka and a person outside HS are accused of gross defamation and gross dissemination of information that violates private life. Nieme is accused of being a journalist-in-chief.

The criminal suspicions of Muka and Nieme are related to the suspected neglect of management and supervisory responsibility.

Attorney representing Teitti and Sanoma Media Finlandia, which publishes Helsingin Sanom Kai Kotiranta said before the hearing at the courthouse that the trial is important from a free speech standpoint.

“My boss and Helsingin Sanomat stand behind the story without any doubts,” Kotiranta said.

Helsinki Sanomat’s editor-in-chief Erja Yläjärvi has stated that HS still stands by its case.

“The case is about a socially significant issue, i.e. trust in the police. No one is identified in the story. Even though I was the editor-in-chief at another time when the story was published, I fully stand behind the story. It’s about investigative journalism, which is an essential part of Helsingin Sanomat’s work,” Yläjärvi said after the charges were filed last October.

The main proceedings of the trial will last until the beginning of October.