Foreign Minister Kanerva to Slovenia; controversial SMS messages may be published next week

Johanna Tukiainen seeking court injunction to block publication

Ilkka Kanerva

Johanna Tukiainen

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The parliamentary group of the National Coalition Party will convene today - Thursday - without Minister for Foreign Affairs Ilkka Kanerva, who has travelled to Slovenia in order to attend the Informal Meeting of EU Foreign Ministers to be held there on March 28th to 29th.
      Prior to the meeting, Kanerva will have bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel of Slovenia, the current holders of the EU Presidency.
     
The agenda of the Parliamentary group meeting does not include Kanerva’s so-called SMS message furore, National Coalition Party sources say.
      However, Pekka Ravi, the chairman of the Parliamentary group, has repeatedly said during the past few days that any persons willing to discuss the matter will be free to do so. Four party sources agreed with the Chair, while one MP stressed that there are ”more important issues” in Parliament.
      Esko Tulusto, the editor-in-chief of the weekly gossip magazine Hymy, intends to decide today whether or not the magazine will publish next week the mobile phone text messages allegedly sent by Kanerva to Johanna Tukiainen, a woman described in the tabloid press as an ”erotic dancer”.
      Kanerva has publicly claimed that the messages were related to work, which is why the contents of the messages could be of importance.
      ”My decision will be entirely journalistic - not political”, stressed Tulusto to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
      Tulusto did not say whether or not the magazine has considered publishing all messages or only some of them.
     
The editor-in-chief reported having consulted a lawyer in order to establish whether or not it could be illegal to publish the messages.
      The entire matter could be moot, in any case, as in the most recent development it has transpired that Johanna Tukiainen has herself sought a court injunction against publication of the SMS messages.
      At least according to reports from the Finnish News Agency STT, Hymy intends to publish some of the messages in its edition of next Wednesday, which is already at the printers.
     
Minister Kanerva will not be present at the regular weekly meeting of the Parliamentary group next Thursday, either, as he will then be attending the 2008 NATO Summit that will be organized in Bucharest, Romania on April 2nd to 4th.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  National Coalition Party MP calls on Kanerva to resign (18.3.2008)
  Security Police investigating Kanerva death threats (19.3.2008)
  National Coalition Party and government back Kanerva (12.3.2008)
  Foreign Minister admits to sending text messages to dancer (11.3.2008)

Links:
  Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland Press Release 26.3.2008: Foreign Minister Kanerva to attend the Informal Meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers and to meet Slovenian Foreign Minister Rupel

Helsingin Sanomat