Finns Party MP, and newly-appointed Minister of Economic Affairs, Wille Rydman stated on Yle TV1's breakfast show on Monday that certain parties within Finland are spreading misinformation about the Finnish government to foreign media.
"We have domestic actors who, in the style of Johan Bäckman, spread lies [about the government]. The media should pay attention to what kind of role they play in the spreading of false claims about Finland to foreign media," Rydman said.
Bäckman is a pro-Russia academic who was convicted last year of harassing journalist Jessikka Aro.
Rydman's comment came in the wake of a number of controversies that have beset the new government — most notably involving his party colleagues Vilhelm Junnila, Mari Rantanen and Riikka Purra — which have also garnered the attention of international media outlets from the BBC to Politico.
Although Rydman did not specify who he thinks was spreading untruths to foreign media outlets during his breakfast show appearance, he returned to Yle's studios on Monday evening to appear on the current affairs programme A-Studio. When asked about his earlier comment, Rydman replied that he was speaking in "general terms".
"If you go on Twitter and look at the activities of various researchers and social activists, including journalists, you don't have to look very hard to find cases like this. But I have noticed that if you mention some people in particular by name, you are then said to be online shaming," he said.
Junnila's necktie
When asked for an example of the cases he was referring to, Rydman pointed to the discussion around why his predecessor as Economic Affairs Minister, Vilhelm Junnila, chose to wear a raccoon-patterned tie when he faced a confidence vote in Parliament.
"This government has been branded with the most inappropriate and unfounded allegations. The craziest was the allegation that some tie-wearing selection was intended to communicate some strange message to some secret political audience," he said.
Junnila attended the confidence vote session wearing a white necktie featuring illustrations of racoons on it. Media outlets reported at the time that the raccoon may have referenced Finns Party chair Riikka Purra, who has sometimes been compared to the scavenging animals. Meanwhile, conversations on social media pondered whether the necktie referred to the far-right.
At the time, Junnila said the tie did not carry a specific meaning and that it was simply a gift he received from his wife.
Junnila narrowly survived the vote of confidence, by 95-86 with three abstentions and 15 absences, but resigned two days later as the controversy over his previous close ties to far-right groups continued.
Like "conspiracy theories"
Rydman, who left the National Coalition Party last year to eventually join the Finns Party before April's parliamentary elections, was then named Junnila's replacement as economics minister.
When asked if he was equating Johan Backmän's close links with Putin's regime in Russia to a discussion about tie choices in his earlier comment, Rydman said he was referring to the phenomenon of extraordinary conspiracy theories.
"They're more akin to peculiar conspiracy theories, where you see that different kinds of ties or other things have some kind of mysterious message to communicate to some specific audience. I'm used to seeing these mostly on mysterious conspiracy forums on the internet," he said.
When pressed for examples of the apparent lies that have appeared about the Finnish government in the international media, Rydman cited just one outlet.
"For example, there have been some curious articles in [Germany's] Süddeutsche Zeitung. There are a few others too," Rydman said, without elaborating further.
Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany, has closely followed the fallout from Finance Minister Purra's racist and violent comments written on a blog in 2008.
Political expert: Rydman comment could limit freedom of expression
Teivo Teivainen, a Professor of World Politics at the University of Helsinki, told Yle News that Rydman's comments — and in particular the reference to Johan Bäckman — carry more weight because he is a government minister and a member of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's (NCP) cabinet.
"Coming from some odd commentator on Twitter or even a normal Member of Parliament is one thing, but coming from somebody using government power could be seen as having implications that might threaten freedom of expression," Teivainen said.
Teivainen further noted that this is especially significant as the new administration's government programme makes several references to the importance of protecting freedom of expression.
In a section entitled "Strengthening democracy, participation and trust in society," PM Orpo's government programme states: "A culture of good discussion and exchange of opinions will be strengthened in society, starting at an early age, while safeguarding the constitutional freedom of expression and opinion:"