One of Finland’s best-known defenders of freedom of speech was about to delete Jussi Halla-aho’s blog post: “The decision was wrong”

In October at the beginning, the international week of banned books was celebrated. The theme week, which started in 1982, originates from the United States and is still largely focused there, the country considered the cradle of freedom.

In Finland, only the most active reading enthusiasts know about Banned Books Week. We don’t need it.

“In the United States, the American Library Association is active. It even files lawsuits on behalf of books,” Kai Ekholm tells. “There is no advance or even post-censorship in Finland. We can have the rainbow people on display, for example, in the Oodi library.”

The dissertation of Ekholm, who retired from the post of chief librarian of the National Library, dealt with book censorship in libraries after the Second World War.

Website published by the working group led by Ekholm On the road to freedom of speech deals with the history of Finnish censorship. In 2017, it received the state award for information disclosure.

Ekholm are the most famous Finnish defenders of freedom of speech. Still, he has had to make a very rare censorship decision in modern times.

“The National Library removed the blog post from the online archive, from which Jussi Halla-aho received a sentence. The decision was made with a lawyer. We thought we had to be in line with the authority. But in hindsight, it was wrong.”

Ekholm reminds you of the old basics. The freedom of speech of those with different opinions must also be respected. There can be no freedom of speech unless it applies to everyone.

In that sense, freedom of speech has recently often become a chore for its traditional, enlightened supporters.

“The populists’ joke about freedom of speech is pure rhetoric. But it shows how terrible the situation is with freedom of speech today. There is always a channel if you want to say something.”

That channel is the internet, whose early days were exulted in the media democracy it brought. Everyone could have their voice heard.

“It is a matter of honor for the press to monitor the ethics of journalism. That’s what the Public Speaking Council is for. The rise of the extreme right and populism is a consequence of the internet. That group now has a hegemonic voice online,” says Ekholm.

At the same time, the printed word has lost its status, not only the press but also literature. Ekholm points out that audiobooks have made books so cheap that even paperback editions are no longer worth making. That too is part of the digital revolution.

“All this can be seen in freedom of speech. Soon we will only be united by its lowest common denominators.”

Development threatens to expose even the cornerstone of Finnish folk culture, the library where Ekholm has spent most of his working career. It saddens him that there are fewer libraries and the number of borrowings has decreased.

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“Libraries are not only information but even part of our consciousness.”

Ekholm refers to the statistic that 800,000 Finns have problems with reading skills.

“Human memory is extremely fragmentary. That is why we have tried to record information since ancient times. There is no backup for human life, but libraries function reasonably well as such over generations. They are not only information but even part of our consciousness.”

Ekholm has enriched libraries with dozens of books. In recent years, he has written about intellectuals such as Jörn Donner and Anselm Hollowhom he characterizes linguistically as Finland’s most versatile poet.

Before the internet, the cultural elite they represented largely defined what was talked about and how. From the point of view of democracy, it is not very promising that in the new gallant media democracy such a large part of it has been replaced by hate speech and other sleazy lumps.

“Intellectuals were not only narcissists but also enormously productive. They are interesting because the boundaries of the world are not enough for them. At first they are rejected, but at some point they start to be considered geniuses because they are able to free us from certain prejudices.”

of Ekholm the latest book, published this fall Matti Nykänen – The boy chained to the clouds has attracted attention and controversy. After cultural figures, a hill jumper seems like a surprising choice.

“I thought that after the literary characters, why not also write about a dyslexic, who nevertheless knew how to express himself. The book is a jagged tribute to a man who rose to success despite his starting points. Heroism is always accompanied by sadness.”

Next, Ekholm writes a book merenkolkuneuvos John from Nurmiswhose story includes, in addition to ship equipment, company history, map collecting and the establishment of the famous Baltic Sea Conservation Foundation.

Hollo and Donner are dead, as are Ekholm’s friends and conversation partners Peter of Bagh and Matti Klinge. According to Ekholm, society needs intellectuals like them because they improve its quality. But are there such great cultural figures anymore today?

Ekholm comes up with at least a couple. MA Numminen is still active, and a cartoonist and comic artist Ville Ranta has emerged in recent years. They have also had to defend their freedom of speech.