Finnish journalists disguised themselves as priests and social workers at scene of school shooting

Much nonsense has been written on the Internet regarding the school massacre in the small town of Jokela last November, but an aspect of great interest to me is how the media involved itself in the aftermath.

As is common at scenes of human suffering all over the world, today’s news media for a moment revealed its true face to the the involved: some journalists from major media outlets presented themselves as social workers and dressed up as priests when trying to interview shocked minors. Various other social engineering with the goal to collect information on the victims of the shooting and even attempts to forcefully intrude into the homes of their families also occurred. In addition to this, the everyday, expected acts of media asshattery, including excessive interviewing, recording/filming were all over the place.

Some accounts of abusive journalism witnessed by students at Jokela high school were published on the blog of a professor of Information Law (in Finnish, rough translation available through Google).

(Image from the Jokela investigation report video)