Pupil faces defamation charges for putting embarrassing video clip of teacher on YouTube
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Charges of defamation are being considered against a school pupil in Lieksa in Eastern Finland. Police are investigating a case in which a video clip of a teacher was posted on the Internet. The case is being seen as a test of the legal limits of what kind of material is permissible to put online.
The clip, which shows the teacher singing, was shot during a May Day Eve party at Rauhala School in Lieksa.
The 15-year-old pupil uploaded the 90-second clip onto YouTube, under the title "Karaoke of mental hospital", without the teacher's permission.
"I didn't put it up there to hurt anyone. It should have been taken as humour", said the pupil in question.
The boy has apologised to the teacher. "But she said that it [the apology] came from the mouth, and not the heart", he says.
After the pupil was reprimanded by the school's head teacher, the clip was removed from the Internet. It had been viewed 650 times.
A group of the boy's classmates told Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday that while they understood that the teacher was upset, a sense of humour would have been called for.
"There is nothing bad in the clip as such, but it was linked with a derogatory title", said one seventh-grader.
The teacher could not be reached for comment.
The head teacher Marja-Leena Riikonen said that the teacher in question is shocked and upset by the matter. She says that she is sorry on behalf of the teacher, the whole school, and the pupil.
There are no precedents yet on where to draw the line on making embarrassing video footage public.
Heikki Poukka, a Helsinki prosecutor, and an expert in issues involving freedom of expression, told Helsingin Sanomat that much will depend on whether or not there was malicious intent.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.5.2007 - TODAY |
 Pupil faces defamation charges for putting embarrassing video clip of teacher on YouTube |
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