Freedom
of press under threat
Press freedom is under greater threat than
in decades. Countries such as Russia have censored the media to the extent that
critical media has become nonexistent, but President Trump’s recent attacks on
the press and the coinage of “fake news” have diminished the capabilities of
the free press in western societies, too.
For Helsingin Sanomat, the Nordic’s leading
newspaper, freedom of the press is one of its core values. Though Finland is
one of the highest-ranking countries in press freedom, the paper has seen
several shutdowns during its 130-year history.
A
message for the presidents
Thus, when the first-ever summit between
presidents Trump and Putin was announced to take place in Helsinki, Helsingin
Sanomat jumped on the opportunity to send an important message – by welcoming
the presidents to the land of free press.
With only 18 days’ notice, the paper
created an outdoor campaign that targeted the two presidents directly as they
drove from the airport to the summit in central Helsinki. Nearly 300 billboards
containing headlines taken directly from the newspaper regarding both
presidents and their relationship with the media were placed along three
possible routes.
Triggering
a global discussion
In just 48 hours, the campaign generated over
2 600 news articles online in 55 countries, was widely covered in
traditional media, gained over a million interactions on social media, and
reached a total of 1,25 billion people. More importantly, it brought freedom of
the press back on the map and ignited a movement for its defense: The Boston
Globe initiated a torrent of hundreds of newspaper editorials against Trump’s
attacks towards the media.
“The Land of Free Press was a timely
reminder of how endangered press freedom is worldwide”, wrote The Economist.