Criticism of Päivi Räsänen’s participation in television entertainment

He is a member of the House of Representatives Päivi Räsänen (KD) is the star who hid behind a Jaguar mask on Saturday Night Entertainment disguised singer Get a team member Christopher Strandberg To answer. On Monday, his Instagram post was liked by more than 24,000 followers where he wrote that he is “strongly against moving profiles like Räsänen to such a program.”

“The Masker is a unique program precisely because it is so innocent and so apolitical,” he wrote.

Who is expressing his support for him? Ted Urho. He is Director of Operations for Agenda Think Tank, ran in Helsinki municipal elections for the SFP, and received the Rainbow Applause Award “for his involvement in LGBTQ issues in public and on the Rainbow Appeal and Seta board, among others.”

Regnbågsankan is now called Regnbågsallians Svenskfinland. Seta works for equal rights regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual expression.

Urho stresses that he sees freedom of expression as a fundamental value in democracy and the rule of law. But in this case, he believes that she failed in the judgment of the production company and the TV channel.

Of course, in popular culture, there is a longstanding tradition of including politicians on entertainment programmes, he points out. In the 1990s, the two presidential candidates participated in a bi-athletic competition something familiar and in Dancing with the stars He has, for example, the center you are kakonen Dance.

But now, as Urho asserts, it’s a program in which celebrities are initially hidden behind a mask, and where the participants are not informed in advance. He says it is very important.

When you in The Masked Singer bring up a controversial politician, you remove the audience’s choice at home. It goes wrong, especially if it’s someone you think is cool and you cheer up and pat, and then see that aha, that’s the same person who wants to deprive you and your family of your rights.

According to Ted Orho, this may be something that has not been considered from the perspective of the majority, but it is clear from the point of view of the minority.

– I think you can also relate to that as a Swedish speaker. Imagine if someone very critical of the Swedish language came to Finland, and wanted to ban Swedish or deprive us of our rights.

Razanin was surprised by the reactions

On Monday mornings, says Päivi Räsänen to MTV3 She could not imagine that there would be such a fuss about the masked singer.

– This is a family show, an entertainment program and the atmosphere was really nice with the production team and judges. I couldn’t even imagine that someone would take it so badly, as it says in Nyhetsmorgon on MTV3.

According to Razanin, she received a lot of responses, most of which were “very encouraging”.

– The aspect of freedom of expression in it has been strongly highlighted, and the idea that we are so far in the culture of cancellation, that is, in this exclusive culture, a person who was in another context may not appear in another context in an entertainment program .. a view of this tempting thinking, she tells MTV3 .

Räsänen says that many Christians in Finland share her view and that they should not be excluded from public conversations. She also says that she has always emphasized the equal value of all people.

The right platform?

Ted Urho realizes that Strandberg and Räsänen both addressed the so-called cancel culture in their comments. Urho thinks this culture of freezing or insulting is too dangerous and he doesn’t want anything to see it. But there are nuances.

– No one should be silenced and no one should lose their platform, but maybe it is about an entertainment program which is the right platform?

Päivi Räsänen himself made the decision to express himself provocatively, he says, and says it would then be the audience’s turn to draw the line.

– As a member of Parliament, she has a tribune. Then you can think for yourself how you want to do it.

Ann Wallstrom, the responsible producer at Fremantlemedia that produces Masked Singer, wrote to HBL that “The views provided by Strandberg are valuable and we have dealt with them in a working group.”