Feminist protest disrupts Alma Media recruiting event

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A recruitment event for the Alma Media publishing company in a lecture hall at the University of Helsinki on Wednesday was disrupted by a protest by feminists who accused the company of homophobia.
      About 20 students appeared at the event wearing masks fashioned from photographs of Johanna Korhonen, whose appointment to the post of editor-in-chief of the Rovaniemi-based newspaper Lapin Kansa was abruptly cancelled earlier this year.
      Alma Media said that the move was made because Korhonen had given false information about her life partner’s political activities. Korhonen alleges that she was rejected simply because she lives in a registered partnership with a woman.
     
The masked protesters began to bombard the recruiters with questions:
      “Can a lesbian get a summer job at Alma Media?”
      “How great a part of the company’s turnover goes into hush money?”
      “If disclosing one’s sex life is not necessary in a job interview, how is it possible to lie about it?"
     
The “Reaction Group”, which was established by feminists and students of women’s studies, is still upset at the Korhonen case.
      The organisers of the event calmly answered the questions.
      “We do not hate gays. We cannot hire a person who has betrayed her trust”, answers Mari Vuorre, head of personnel at Alma Media.
      She insists that Alma is a good employer, and urges people not to lie in their job interviews.
      Prizes were available to everyone who asked a question, and each of the “Johanna Korhonens” got a box of pastilles.
      “You could openly and honestly appear with your own faces”, Vuorre remarked.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sacked editor plans to demand significant damages from Alma Media (7.10.2008)
  Lapin Kansa journalists demand resignation of Alma Media CEO and paper?s editor (3.10.2008)
  New editor-in-chief dropped from newspaper, allegedly over lesbian relationship (2.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat