Jokela massacre: media restrictions at school violated freedom of speech

Deputy Chancellor of Justice plans no further action

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Instructions by the National Board of Education to restrict the activities of journalists at the Jokela school after the massacre there nearly two years ago are seen to have violated freedom of speech.
      However, the ruling by Finland’s Deputy Chancellor of Justice is not leading to any action.
      Immediately after the school shooting incident on November 7th, 2007, in which nine people were killed, the National Board of Education issued guidelines according to which journalists should not be allowed on school grounds to interview pupils. The school was also instructed to leave responsibility for disseminating information to the school administration.
      The reason for the guidelines was to spare the pupils any further distress.
     
On the following day the instructions were revised, and the ban on journalists was lifted.
      Later an official said that the reason for the instructions was to guarantee a secure educational environment for the pupils.
      The National Board of Education explained that the guidelines were basically a recommendation, and that a decision on restrictions on journalists was up to the school itself.
     
Deputy Chancellor of Justice Mikko Puumalainen says that the initial guidelines could be seen as a restriction on freedom of speech.
      He also said that constitutionally-guaranteed rights cannot be restricted through rules or guidelines.
      “However, on the basis of the report that I have received, this [restriction on freedom of speech] has not been the goal of the guideline”, Puumala writes in his decision.
     
In Puumalainen’s interpretation, the guidelines were a reaction by officials in a deeply shocking and unexpected situation in which the media also went overboard.
      Puumalainen also noted that the National Board of Education revised its instruction the next day.
      Interviewed by the Finnish News Agency STT, Puumalainen noted that the situation in Jokela was so exceptional that the decision cannot be criticised to any great degree.
      On the morning of November 7th 2007, 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen shot dead six students, the school nurse, the head teacher, and himself in the Jokela School in the southern town of Tuusula.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Gunman and eight others die in school shooting spree (8.11.2007)
  Ombudsman for Children wants study on media handling of Jokela shootings (21.11.2009)

See also:
  Aftermath of Jokela School shooting may cost EUR 6 million (26.2.2009)
  In Another World - Pekka-Eric Auvinen and the Internet (9.12.2008)

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