Supreme Court upholds ethnic agitation conviction against former Oulu councillor Junes Lokka | News

The politician was convicted in 2020, and his conviction was upheld by an appeals court later that year.

The Finnish Supreme Court ruled that Junes Lokka’s activities had nothing to do with journalism. Photo: Paulus Markkula/Yle

Junes Lokka Convicted by the Supreme Court of inciting racial hatred. The former Oulu councilor will have to pay 70 daily income-related fines for posting videos from a 2016 demonstration in Helsinki to his YouTube channel.

The videos included English-language videos of speeches the court ruled were inflammatory. Lokka has added subtitles in different languages.

Luca argued in court that he did not himself make the statements in the videos so his conviction should be overturned. He claimed that he acted as a journalist reporting the statements of others, but the court rejected this argument.

Court: Luka’s activities cannot be compared with journalism

The court ruled that the videos depicted Muslims and immigrants as cruel, arrogant, stupid, worthless, and sick. The court did not view the sermons as direct incitement to violence, but said they included insulting remarks about Muslims and immigrants that could be understood as hate speech.

The court noted that Lokka posted the unedited videos, in their entirety, with only subtitles added.

“In publishing the videos, Luca did not take any editorial action that could justify comparison to journalistic work,” the court said.

So the referee rejects Luca’s claim that she did journalistic work.

“Luca must also have understood that the opinions he published were of a slanderous and offensive nature,” the ruling reads.

The court ruled that Luca was responsible for the videos posted on his channel, even if he did not speak in them, and upheld the fine and conviction.

Luca in and out of the courts

This far-right viewer has been involved in several court cases related to content posted online. He had previously been convicted of defamation, among other crimes.

The most famous case involved Lucca’s own complaint about the journalist Joanna Fehkowho, in a Facebook post, called the former chancellor a Nazi and a racist.

The trial court and appeals court upheld Wahko’s conviction, before the Supreme Court acquitted her.

This ruling stated that Lokka could expect harsher criticism than usual for his behavior across several online forums.

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