Police officer posed as journalist to calm down deportee
Man threatened to set light to himself; journalists irate at police tactics
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A man who was to be deported threatened to set himself alight in downtown Rovaniemi, in Northern Finland, on Tuesday morning. A police officer posing as a journalist managed to calm down and eventually apprehend the man.
The police had been notified at 8:30 a.m. of a man who was approaching the Rovaniemi District Court carrying a petrol can and threatening to burn himself alive.
As a precaution, the police cordoned off the buildings of the District Court and the Court of Appeal as well as some other adjacent premises in Valtakatu. Traffic was also halted and diverted.
The situation was over in less than an hour. According to the police, none of the bystanders were in danger.
Pentti Saira, the Provincial Director of the Police Office at the Police Department of the State Provincial Office of Lapland, confirms the information about the police officer having presented himself as a journalist.
However, the head of the investigation Jukka Haataja from the Rovaniemi Police Department is unwilling to comment on the matter.
”The man was persuaded to give himself up. It is not our job to make our tactics public", Haataja commented.
The tactic of a police officer posing as a journalist is not approved by Provincial Director Pentti Saira.
”I would not have chosen this kind of approach. Police officers have to adhere to the police rules”, he stated.
Saira intends to discuss the incident with the Rovaniemi Police. He says that he does not remember any similar case in Finland.
Lawyer Ilkka Ikäheimo, who was present at the scene, regards the police action as excellent. According to him, the situation was extremely threatening, and the police officer more or less saved the man’s life.
The deportee is a client of Ikäheimo’s legal office, which gave the police a tip-off of the man in the first place. According to Ikäheimo, the man had hoped that the media would turn up.
Journalists, on the other hand, are irate at the perceived deception. Mika Pettersson, the editor and chief executive of the Finnish News Agency (STT), has expressed vehement disapproval of the police’s wearing such a disguise, regardless of the severity of the situation.
”We need to discuss the matter. Should this kind of thing become more common, it would reduce the credibility of journalism”, claims Pettersson.
”It is necessary to investigate the Rovaniemi incident thoroughly”, agrees managing editor Antero Mukka from Helsingin Sanomat.
Mukka points out that it is also a question of the occupatinal safety of journalists in general.
”People, even those who have run up against the authorities, must be able to trust that a person who presents himself or herself as a journalist is there only as a communicator”, Mukka adds.
Lauri Kerosuo, a retired lawyer who has long been assisting some journalist organisations, also says that the actions of the police officer who disguised himself as a journalist should be investigated.
The detained man is in his 50s, and comes from outside the European Union. He has been sought by the police for the last couple of weeks.
According to the police, the man will remain in custody and is likely to be deported next week.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 13.8.2008 - TODAY |
 Police officer posed as journalist to calm down deportee |
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