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FREE! Magazine censored
by Antonio Diaz
2007-04-10 10:03:53 |
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I was walking around Helsinki, enjoying the sunny holiday day, when I stopped by the Tourist Information Office in Esplanadi to check if it was needed to refill the stand where we left copies of last FREE! magazine some days ago. I was surprised to see no copies left, so I asked the girls working there.
 One told me that the person responsible for the office did not like the cover of the last issue, considering it “too provocative” and that the stand and the copies are hidden in a store room, but if somebody wants and asks for a copy they can provide it to the customers. To sum up, we could say that the third issue has been censored from the public.
The theme of the cover is about the sex industry in Finland, and it is made by an English artist and collaborator, Robin Ellis. There you can see an illustration that shows some people in the sauna wearing strange masks, half-naked. The main title of our cover is “Sex in the land of sauna”, referring to sex industry in Finland, which is quite different from “Sex in the sauna”, as the girl on the desk of the information office told me that her chief read on the cover. I suppose that this responsible person, Ms. Nina Lager, did not even make the effort to open the pages and see what the article was about.
In our cover story, we give detailed and accurate information about the sex and porn business in Finland, and we also include interviews with porn actors that explain a bit more about their lives in general, and with the vice-president of the association of sex workers in Finland. I suppose that Ms. Lager neither paid attention to the rest of the contents in our publication, where you can find articles that go from Opera to History.
Of course, the people at the office have the right make censorship of a publication that they do not like, the same way that I have my right to complain about it. Last year, all citizens of Helsinki saw a campaign with ads on every tram stop by the magazine “Me Naiset” where a woman, dressed like a pirate, appeared showing one breast. Just one month ago, in another of the most popular freely distributed Finnish newspaper, we could read in a big quote how a Finnish legendary porn actress described the taste of sperm.
I have attended all kinds of exhibitions in museums, open to all kind of public and children, where you could see photographed scenes that go from a penis ejaculating to a piece of shit inside a toilet. So I keep wondering, what is the problem with our magazine, in which all the topics are treated with an exquisite respect towards all kind of audiences.
We promote equality in Finland publishing something new and fresh aimed at all kinds of people, no matter their religion or background. We consider that everybody likes culture, and that we are giving information in English language that was impossible to find before in Finland. But in our short existence of almost four months, we have been systematically ignored by all the institutions here.
The public administration has not been eager to open their ears for a publication that would be so fruitful with which to collaborate and could have so many potential readers that would help to build a real feeling of “belonging” to Finland for the foreign citizens, instead of being just outsiders.
Our readers love the contents, and they continuously encourage us with the nice feedback, but the official institutions just look at another side when we talk about co-operation. It is funny when I read that they want to create a more multi-cultural and international Helsinki to compete with the other Scandinavian capitals, when a new publication in English about culture is totally denied by the own Finnish institutions.
Maybe what it is acceptable here is only to publish complaints about the quality of life of the immigrants or pictures of the trendy people drunk at bars during the parties of the weekend. I hope not, and I hope that people still realize how much potential our publication can have to make this country more open and better culturally. Meanwhile, our magazines continue to be hidden and censored in the backroom of the Tourist Office, in a supposedly “freedom loving country” as Finland advertises itself. I think that is very sad.
Antonio Díaz is the co-editor of FREE! Magazine
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