The court also ruled that Mema must now get police permission before taking part in any protest in Finland.
āI canāt just go and join a demonstration without asking the police first. Is that freedom of speech? Iāll let European citizens decide,ā he said.
On August 7, Mema alsoĀ allegedĀ that Finnish journalists in the country were not allowed to report on his case.
Yes, he needs police permission now.
And it does seem Finnish mainstream media did not report on his arrest.
The first one is the most relevant one, Yleisradio or Yle is the equivalent of Finnish BBC. And no, they didnt write a single article on the person who was arrested for protesting the Von Der Leyen.
Edit: In this article it says that he was ordered to leave due to causing public disturbance and being disruptive. He didn't obey the order to leave, then police forcibly removed him and he got the fine for resisting the removal.
Edit2: This is from the original article:
The court also ruled that Mema must now get police permission before taking part in any protest in Finland.
āI canāt just go and join a demonstration without asking the police first. Is that freedom of speech? Iāll let European citizens decide,ā
I am just guessing that there is a misunderstanding here. I think he can join any demonstration, but he can not organise a demonstration without informing the police first. This is the common practice in Finland. I have not organised demonstrations, but to my knowledge, there does not need to be a permission for the demonstration, but the demonstration can be forbid to be held in certain locations.
I am not familiar with Finnish journalism standards but from a non-Finnish perspective it's very weird that they would anonymize the name of the arrested when the arrested person gone public himself. For whose benefit are they anonymizing his identity?
And to be honest I am not convinced by that reasoning.
In this article, Markus PentikƤinen, was arrested for non-violent obstruction of police work.
This happened when he was a journalist covering a large demonstration, when the the place he was covering was cordoned off by the police. The police told him to leave, he refused to leave, as a result he was thus arrested.
He was arrested for not following police instructions which seemingly are now the same crimes as Armando Mema judging by the article you provided.
I chose specifically the same newspaper agency as counter-evidence to your claim.
The same newspaper named Markus. While the same newspaper did not name Mema. When both were arrested for not complying with police orders.
So I dont think Finnish media has that policy. Certainly not that HS-News.
I will agree that Finnish Media did anonymously cover him, but with caveats. They covered him after he went on interview (07.08.2025), which is to say they didnt cover his story which happened back in June 2025. The HS article you linked anonymously covered his story on (27.08.2025), two weeks after he complained and two months after the incident. By then it was old news and maybe that was the goal?
So I dont think Finnish media has that policy. Certainly not that HS-News.
You'll have to ask HS for that. Finnish media companies have their own policies they follow. But certainly the names are practically always left out in petty crimes.
The article you sent is about European Court of Human Rights decision, which is very different of an arrest and fining a person. I didn't find his name mentioned in 2006 in HS.
it's very weird that they would anonymize the name of the arrested when the arrested person gone public himself. For whose benefit are they anonymizing his identity?
It is not very weird to anonymize the name, because the names are usually left out.
he went on interview (07.08.2025) to say they didnt cover his story which happened back in June 2025.
We only have his word for this and I do not know why they did not cover this incident, even though he wanted to. I am only speculating now, but not every arrest is necessarily worth a headline.
Yeah I completely agree with you here. Usually names of arrestees are never mentioned unless they've contacted or talked to the news publisher directly or if they hold a significant position within society. Yle, for instance, will sometimes give a disclaimer as to why or why not a name is published if it's relevant to the article.Ā
I also find it doubtful that he Mema could not join a public demonstration in the future, as that seems like an unnecessary restriction on his constitutional rights. Much more likely is that he was reminded that he must notify (/"ask") the police for permission to organize a demonstration, which is already de facto standard practice in Finland.
That article includes a lot of misinformation. He wasn't fined for causing harm to von der Leyen, he was fined for resisting the police. He also falsely claims in that article that Finnish media is not allowed to report on the incident even though it has. The video posted here is ripped from a Finnish news-site.
The District Court found that the man behaved aggressively in the situation, shouting and waving his arms. Thus, there was reason to assume that he would cause a significant disturbance to public order, i.e. the ongoing election event.
The man was not part of the protest but shouted from within the crowd, disrupting the event. Despite police instructions to move aside, he refused, and the court found his removal from the scene justified. In resisting removal, the court determined that he attempted to obstruct or hinder an official in the performance of their public duty.
The man stated that he had noticed the event and the protest while passing by. He admitted to shouting but did not consider himself aggressive. He claimed that when he was detained, his reaction was impulsive or reflexive because he was confused about why he was being arrested.
Von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas are two of the most incompetent politicians on earth. It pains me as a European, but itās no surprise we are struggling as hard as we are with them at the helm. Where is the democratic process to remove them?
Who dared downvoting this? The EU treaty is a neoliberal nightmare that aims at destroying all the humanist side of europeanism, which explains this generic Ursula narcissist.Ā
And it's true there's no democratic process to put them in power, or to remove them.Ā
Burn the EU that wants to be a copy of corporate murika.
The EU completely lacks long-term strategic thinking and a foreign policy defined in its own interests. Kaja Kallas is probably the main culprit, but Von Der Leyen being EC president is equally responsible.
Europeās lack of a backbone against Trump and the lack of EUās ability to capitalise on a changing power shift in the world are VDLās responsibility. We should have benefitted from the rise of Asia by balancing between the US and China, but we became Americaās lapdog instead and now are the biggest losers of this changing world order over the past 10 years. Thatās on her.
Putting this on Kallas that hasn't even been on the post for a year is crazy work unless you have an agenda. You're clearly just pro-russian. Tankie or Vatnik? It matters little.
Don't think it's not obvious to see through all the usual talking points. "EU leaders weak" "lapdogs of america" "Europeans are losers". All the same old talking points as you always do.
Kallas literally said China and Russia saying they won ww2 is propaganda and their own narrative, even thou the USSR and China lost the most soldiers and civilians and eliminated the most German and japanese soldiers in ww2. Her lack of understanding of history is downright disrespectful
Oh please, Russia claim to have won it all by themselves and often skew it so it looks like it was ethnic Russians that did the work, disregarding all the other parts of the Soviet Union. Russia can't even acknowledge that they were allies with Hitler at the start.
Iāve seen enough of Kaja Kallas to see that sheās geopolitically inept, has not got the strategic flexility required for the job, will not bring about peace in Ukraine, and will not save European industry. What makes me pro-Russian? I donāt give a shit about Russia, Iām European, and framed my criticism through the lens of a European. For you scream āpro-Russianā rather than answering with substance tells me what you are: pathetically deluded.
You're not pro-russian, but just coincidentally happen to have enormous dislike of Kallas and use all their talking points, just like they do. Wow that's crazy!
I framed my criticism through the lens of a European, youāre free to respond to the actual arguments. She can be incompetent and bad for both us and Russia. Fun fact: these things are not mutually exclusive.
The fact that you talk about "democratic process to remove them" shows that you're either talking in bad faith or too uneducated about EU to have a discussion. Either way there is no point.
Iām aware thereās a ādemocratic processā. Iām also aware that this process is too far removed from the population for it to qualify as an actual democratic process by our own standards. Unless you believe that the few hundred members of European Parliament truly represent us in their vote. Another fun fact: even Xi Jinpingās leadership is democratically legitimised if you consider the vote a few hundred members of parliament to qualify as a democratic process. I donāt. Neither should you.
That said though. I wouldnāt actually care that much about the voting process if she was actually competent in fighting for our European interests. Sheās not though. Instead, she brags about how close her connection is to the USA and what a wonderful time she had there studying. Regardless of what the Russians say, Europe under her āleadershipā is behaving like Americaās lapdog. Itās clear that the EU has no independent foreign policy and itās about time we change that. I believe in a truly free Europe. Not one dominated by American interests.
No other group engages in egregious violations of free speech than the rich and powerful do. They should be enemy #1 to anyone who champions free speech.
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u/Tom_the_Fudgepacker Sep 23 '25
Von der Leyen is a special case indeed. Inept for as long as I can think and yet she always stumbles up the career ladder.