Journalists' rights to cover protests must be safeguarded

In late February, a protest erupted outside the Turkish Embassy in Finland, where a picture of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğa was set alight. Freelance photojournalist Miro Johansson, present to document the event, was detained by the police despite identifying himself as a journalist and offering to show his press card.

Initially, Johansson faced suspicion of defamation related to the burning of Erdoğan's picture, but the charges were promptly dismissed. However, his memory card was confiscated and only returned a week later upon request by the Union of Journalists in Finland's lawyer—by which time the story had lost its newsworthiness.

It is worth noting that merely capturing an image cannot be deemed defamation. Defamation would require, at the very least, using the photograph in some way. Consequently, it is clear that confiscating the memory card was an excessive and utterly disproportionate action by the police.