Vanhanen campaign book lashes out at yellow press

PM cites state duties and ministerial responsibility as "co-respondent" in divorce

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By Laura Pekonen
     
      In a new book published for his presidential election campaign, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen aims his harshest and most personal words at the way his divorce was handled in the press.
      Vanhanen focuses on the gossip magazines Katso and Seiska, which pay for news tips, as well as on the daily late-edition tabloids Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat.
      Competition over readers is tough, and some journalists assume that decision-makers "should reveal everything about their lives", Vanhanen wrote in his diary.
      "Who'd want to be a politician? We don't want any fundamentalism in Finland, or a commercial form of the [East German] Stasi."
     
Going even further than Vanhanen himself is the actual writer of the book, the Prime Minister's aide Timo Laaninen, whose text was approved by Vanhanen.
      Laaninen compares the Finland of the future with East Germany, "where anybody could have been a Stasi informer".
      "The methods used by the weeklies are straight out of the textbooks of Stasi and the KGB. A person can be persuaded to inform on a politician with a godfather offer- the kind that cannot be refused: either you agree to cooperate with us, or we will publish your name."
      Laaninen notes that informing on one's parents was admired during the time of Stalin.
      "A commercial network of informers is being set up in the country to serve the needs of entertainment journalism, but it does not seem to bother anyone. The jocular slogan from years back "monitor your neighbours, report any deviance" is becoming a reality in a country full of camera-equipped mobile phones."
      At the press conference marking the launch of the book, Vanhanen said that because of his position, he does not plan to propose any legal restrictions on reporting on the private lives of politicians. Laaninen, for his part, called on journalists to consider whether or not Finland was turning into a controlled Big Brother society.
     
Vanhanen was especially angered when a reporter from a tabloid appeared at his door, asking his 14-year-old daughter about possible other women. He also says that he had received death threats, which came after intense publicity over his divorce.
      He slammed the media for the fact that in doing their work they did not have to ponder the niceties of telling the kids about things like death threats or explaining to them how to respond if such and such a person turns up in the front yard.
      Vanhanen says that "moral pathos" would be understandable if he had put great emphasis on issues of morality in his politics. He feels that he has not done so. In Laaninen's view, one reason why Vanhanen has been treated the way he has is that he is a teetotaller - an unusual lifestyle choice in today's Finland, and one that many people associate with old-fashioned or conservative values.
      Vanhanen says that he understands that a journalist's right to protect the confidentiality of his or her sources is important for the freedom of information. However, he feels that paying informers large fees puts the matter into a different light.
      "I can take this", said Vanhanen. "And if I can make it all the way to the end and do not falter, I hope and believe that many other public figures will be encouraged to act the same way", Vanhanen writes, explaining why he has not commented publicly on the issue itself.
     
The book has little to say about Merja Vanhanen, but what is there portrays her in a positive light. The Prime Minister writes that the brightest flame between two people can fade away at its own pace.
      "It was half in my mind to answer that the co-respondent in this case was the state and ministerial responsibility. Certainly in recent months I have not had the energy to pay enough attention to my partner."
     
Other aspects of Vanhanen's career are handled in a more serene tone.
      The book reveals that Vanhanen had told his new aide Olli Rehn already in 2003 that he would put forward his name as the Finnish member of the European Commission. However, Vanhanen asked Rehn not to say anything in public, because he first had to make a serious effort on behalf of the bid by Paavo Lipponen to become the President of the Commission.
      When Lipponen was not chosen, the Social Democrats proposed the Minister of Social Affairs and Health Sinikka Mönkäre as the Finnish Commissioner. However, the support of the Swedish People's Party tipped the balance in Rehn's favour.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.10.2005


Previously in HS International Edition:
  PM Vanhanen: Even Prime Minister is entitled to some privacy (29.4.2005)
  Piqued PM keen to explain press rumours surrounding his divorce (15.4.2005)

LAURA PEKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
laura.pekonen@hs.fi