The main author of the article was sentenced to pay a fine based on part of his income, amounting to a few thousand euros, while the other author of the article was not fined.
A court in Helsinki today convicted two investigative journalists for revealing classified information about Finnish military espionage, in a case raising concerns about press freedom.
“We are disappointed by the decision. Despite the reduced sentences, the damage to freedom of expression has already been done,” Andero Muka, editor-in-chief of their newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, responded in a statement.
The main author of the article was sentenced to pay a fine based on part of his income, amounting to a few thousand euros, while the other author of the article was not fined.
Charges against a third person, their supervisor, were dropped. The decision can be appealed.
The prosecution had asked for suspended sentences of at least a year and a half each for all three.
The three journalists denied the charges and their defense lawyers claimed that no state secrets had been revealed.
The conviction relates to an article published in 2017 that contained information dating back 10 years and referred to Finnish military espionage operations “classified for the benefit of Finland’s external security”, the court explained.
The investigative article detailed the “organization, capabilities and supply” of an army communications center in Jyväskylä, 230 km north of Helsinki.
According to Sanoma Media, the newspaper’s parent company, “there were strong social reasons to write this article”.
At the time, Finland was preparing a new law on intelligence services, which aimed to expand the capabilities of intelligence services to monitor data traffic.
This bill “restricted the fundamental rights of a citizen”, according to Sanoma Media.
The court ruled that disclosure of the information could be justified on grounds of public interest only in the case of “significant disclosure”, such as “abuse of power or other illegal activities of the authorities”.
The court ruled that this did not apply to the article in question and that the disclosure of the information could not be considered “harmless” even though it “does not endanger Finland’s external security”.
Disclosing a secret national interest, which falls under the category of treason, can lead to up to four years in prison in Finland.
Pavel Szalai, director for the European Union of the press freedom organization Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières), called the sentence “very disturbing”.
When “a country that ranks at the top of the World Press Freedom Index” prosecutes journalists for writing about “national security issues,” it sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom around the world, he said.
RES-EMP
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