PM Vanhanen: Even Prime Minister is entitled to some privacy

Matti Vanhanen

Tanja Karpela

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Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) does not approve of the notion that by being in public office, the PM would enjoy less privacy than other citizens do.
      In an interview published in the latest issue of the weekly magazine Seura, PM Vanhanen notes that the lines between public life and privacy have been blurred. He refers to the article published in the same magazine earlier this month that related to Vanhanen and Tanja Karpela's (Centre) alleged night-time encounter in a Tampere hotel in 1999. The article followed the announcement that Matti Vanhanen and his wife Merja Vanhanen would be divorcing after 20 years of marriage.
     
In Vanhanen's opinion, everybody can define his or her own line of reasoning. On the other hand, no one should withdraw into a corner because of rumours, allegations, or guessing. "They are part of being in the limelight, but no one should be forced to play according to such rules in public", he says.
      Vanhanen believes that the scope of a person's privacy can be influenced by his or her own actions - even when he or she is a prime minister.
     
"Everybody is entitled to set his or her privacy level, and everyone does it in his or her own way. As a former journalist, I very well understand that there is a great interest in the Prime Minister's life and way of thinking. Many people regard it as justified", Vanhanen points out.
      Yet Vanhanen hopes that people would look at the way he himself has behaved in respect of disclosing his privacy. He says that he does not remember a single interview or campaign photo that would have been published at his own initiative.
     
"I have just wanted to live my own life without reporting about it to a wide audience, and I have done my political work as I would have done any work", Vanhanen stresses in the interview.
      Now he thinks that such a principle does not seem to work out. In his view, at least earlier it was one of the principles of journalism that a person's privacy is open only if he or she has revealed it for others to see. If not, the privacy would be secure.
      Vanhanen admits that it is natural that people are interested, and he does not lay the blame on the media. However, he remarks: "Not everybody wants to report all details of his or her private life in public".


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Piqued PM keen to explain press rumours surrounding his divorce (15.4.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat