Go dtí le déanaí bhí mé i mo cholúnaí Idirlín san Fhionlainn agus mé ag tarraingt na mílte léitheoirí chuig an láithreán gréasáin ar a mbíodh mo chuid scríbhinní ar fáil. Mar is dual don cholúnaí mhaith ba mhinic a chuirinn fearg ar ghrúpaí sainleasa ar gach taobh den speictream pholaitiúil, agus bhagair roinnt de na dreamanna seo féachaint chuige go sacálfaí as an láithreán mé. I mbliana d’éirigh le dream acu a gcuspóir a bhaint amach.
Bhí mé le cúpla bliain anuas faoi ionsaí ag lucht an chiníochais agus iad ag cur ‘Stailíneachais’ i mo leith – rud a bhí bun os cionn leis an bhfírinne, ar ndóigh, mar is eol d’aon duine a léigh an leabhar deireanach Gaeilge uaim, gan trácht a dhéanamh air go raibh mo bhlag ar maos le tagairtí d’Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn agus do chruatan na gcampaí géibhinn san Aontas Shóivéadach.
Mar sin féin bhí cara sa chúirt ar na ciníochaithe nach raibh ag aon dream eile. Chaill mé an jab – ba í an ghéarchéim eacnamaíoch ba shiocair leis, mar a d’áitigh léiritheoir an láithreán gréasáin orm, cé gurbh é an scéala a chuala mé uaithi roimh choinscleo na gciníochaithe go raibh mo chuid scríbhinní thar barr ag tarraingt léitheoirí. Agus ní bhfuair mé post nua, cé go raibh mé tar éis a léiriú i rith na seacht mblian go raibh mé in ann ábhar maith iriseoireachta a sholáthar go tráthrialta, trí huaire in aghaidh na seachtaine.
Ar ndóigh níl mé ar an t-aon duine i saol iriseoireachta na Fionlainne a bhfuil taithí den chineál seo agam. Duine de lucht m’aitheantais, iriseoir seanchleachta a chaith na blianta fada sa Bhruiséil ag tabhairt tuairisce ar imeachtaí an Aontais Eorpaigh d’éirigh chomh taismeach céanna dó nuair a bhí de cheann dána aige trí cholún a scríobh faoi chúlra Nua-Naitsíoch na bpolaiteoirí nua i bPáirtí na bhFíor-Fhionlannach. Bhí tréimhse leathbhliana idir gach dhá cholún acu, ní fhéadfá a rá go raibh feachtas d’aon chineál ar siúl ag mo dhuine. Mar sin féin, fuair sé le cloisteáil ó lucht a cheannais nach raibh fáilte roimh an gcineál seo scríbhinní, agus sa deireadh sacáladh é.
Is fiú cuimhne a choinneáil air nach iriseoir a chodail amuigh a bhí i mo chara, ach fear a chaith tamall ag coimeád na síochána san Afganastáin agus tuiscint aige do chúrsaí polaitíochta an domhain dá réir; thairis sin tá Spáinnis agus Fraincis go líofa foirfe aige, dhá theanga nach saothraítear mórán san Fhionlainn. Cheapfá go mbeadh an-úsáid ina leithéid do nuachtán ar bith. Agus is deacair a rá cén fáth a mbíonn nuachtáin na Fionlainne chomh géilliúil seo do radacaigh na heite deise. Bhí lucht na nuachtán féin faoi ionsaí ag an dream céanna, ach shílfeá nach gcuirfeadh a leithéid ach tuilleadh dúshláin agus diúnais iontu. Cuid de bhród proifisiúnta na n-iriseoirí cur in aghaidh na n-iarrachtaí go léir cead cainte agus cáinte a bhaint díobh, nach ea?
Ní hea. Le fírinne dealraíonn sé gur ciallmhar an cleas é ó lucht an chiníochais iriseoirí a ionsaí agus a scanrú scun scan. Ceart go leor bíonn iriseoirí na Fionlainne ag freastal ar sheimineáir faoi shaoirse na nuachtán i gcónaí, agus iad ag tabhairt óráidí maoithneacha uathu faoin ngéarleanúint a bhíos ag dul ar lucht na n-irisí is na nuachtán sa domhan i mbéal forbartha, ach san am chéanna ní admhaíonn siad go bhfuil siad tar éis tabhairt isteach do threallchogaithe idirlín na heite deise radacaí cheana féin, agus iad ag déanamh aithrise ar thuairimí agus ar reitric an dreama sin, fiú.
Scríbhneoir Gaeilge ón bhFionlainn é Panu Petteri Höglund.
Until recently I was a web columnist in Finland attracting thousands of readers to the web portal that gave me a publishing platform. As a good columnist should, I often enraged different interest groups everywhere along the political spectrum, and some of these groups threatened to have me sacked. Earlier this year, one of these groups succeeded in these attempts.
I had been under attack for some years by racist right-wing loonies calling me a ‘Stalinist’ – an entirely spurious allegation, as anybody who has read my new Irish novel can assure, not to mention the numerous references I made to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and to the misery of the Soviet hard-labour camps in my blog.
However, racists did have the kind of backdoor influence no other group had. I lost the job: as the producer of the web portal wanted me to believe, it was due to the declining economy, although before the onslaught of the racist activists I had been told my writings were doing great at attracting readers. I was given no other job, although I had shown in the course of my seven-year stint that I was able to produce great journalism on a regular basis, three times a week.
Of course I am not the only one with similar experiences in the world of Finnish journalism. An acquaintance of mine, a seasoned journalist who spent long years as an EU correspondent in Brussels, had the audacity to write three columns about the neo-Nazi background of certain new politicians in the True Finns party. The three columns were published at six-month intervals, so that it was hardly possibly to say that our man was conducting any kind of campaign against the party. But his superiors told him that such musings were not welcome, and in the end he was sacked.
It’s worth noting that my friend is not exactly a run-of-the-mill journalist, but a man who has spent a stint in Afghanistan as a peacekeeper, with an understanding of world politics from that perspective. Moreover, he is fluent in French and Spanish, two languages not studied by too many in Finland. You’d think that any newspaper would find such a man useful. And it’s difficult to say why Finnish newspapers are kowtowing to the extreme right like this. That particular ilk has even attacked newspapermen online, but you’d think this would only make them more defiant and determined. Isn’t it part of a journalist’s professional pride to resist any attempt to thwart his freedom of expression?
No, it isn’t. In fact it seems that it was quite clever of those racists to assault and harass journalists online. Of course Finnish newspapermen still attend seminars about the freedom of the press, giving sentimental speeches about how journalists are persecuted in the developing world, but at the same time they do not admit how they are giving in to the online guerrillas of the radical right, even to the point of adopting their opinions and rhetoric.
Panu Petteri Höglund is an Irish-language writer from Finland.
