Scandinavia’s biggest newspaper has set up billboards mocking Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s treatment of the press ahead of their summit in Helsinki, Newsweek informs.
Nearly 300 billboards line the route from the airport to the center of the Finnish capital bearing headlines taken from previous editions of Helsingin Sanomat. Founded in 1889 when Finland was a duchy under the Russian empire, Helsingin Sanomat is the largest newspaper among Nordic countries, with a subscription circulation of around 360,000.
The billboards headlines are in both English and Russian and are taken directly from articles published by the newspaper between 2000 and 2018, taking aim at both Putin’s muzzling of the media in Russia and Trump’s critical comments about the press.
Billboards using headlines from the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat have been placed all around Helsinki, criticizing Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s attitude to the media.
One of the billboards reads: “Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press.” Another reads: “Trump calls media enemy of the people.” Others say: “Putin increases attacks on the media” and “Media critiquing Trump has changed the meaning of fake news.”
Senior editor-in-chief Kaius Niemi said the billboards were spread out along the main routes into the city with the aim that both leaders could see them as they came from the airport. He told Newsweek that Russia’s media freedoms are worse than in the U.S. but his newspaper was equally concerned about Trump’s “appalling” criticism of the media.
“[Trump] is really questioning the fundaments of free press which is problematic. It is also creating a problem in how people are trusting the media. He is giving a very bad example for other countries by speaking about ‘fake news’.”
Finland is ranked fourth in the world for media freedom, according to the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Russia is listed as 148th out of 180. Since 2000, dozens of Russian journalists have been murdered.
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