Defamation against investigative journalists

The last weeks have seen two criminal cases opened concerning defamation and slander against journalists in Finland and Sweden. Both reporters concerned are well-known for exposing pro-Kremlin disinformation activities.

In Finland, the investigative journalist Jessica Aro was subjected to an elaborate international discrediting campaign following her coverage of pro-Kremlin trolling on Finnish internet sites in 2014. A suspect is now being investigated for coordinating the campaign against Ms Aro while one of her collaborators is suspected to have passed on information about her whereabouts and assignments.

In Sweden, the political editor of Hudiksvalls newspaper Patrik Oksanen, was portrayed as a criminal on Facebook this spring, based on the false information stating that Mr Oksanen had previously been jailed for paedophilia. Like Aro, Mr Oksanen writes about pro-Kremlin disinformation and influence campaigns from Russia on a regular basis. (http://bit.ly/2dI0P0d, http://bit.ly/2eFLERW, http://bit.ly/2eRivE0).

(Image: YLE).