Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist

[muriel_volestrangler]

A Finnish man was sentenced to over a year in prison on Thursday for defaming and harassing investigative journalist Jessikka Aro, who works for Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

Ilja Janitskin, the founder of the right-wing, pro-Kremlin website MV-Lehti, was handed a 22-month prison sentence after being found guilty of 16 charges, including defamation.

Johan Backman, a longtime mouthpiece for Moscow in Finland, was also found guilty of defamation and harassing and received a one-year suspended sentence.
...
The court ordered the defendants to pay €136,000 ($155,000) in damages, which will be distributed to Aro and two other victims.

https://www.dw.com/en/court-in-finland-finds-pro-kremlin-trolls-guilty-of-harassing-journalist/a-45944893

In 2014, Aro noticed a pattern of fake profiles spreading propaganda on social networks - Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter and wanted to explore the impact these were having on Finnish users.

She began to uncover evidence of a state-sanctioned propaganda machine pushing a pro-Kremlin agenda through Twitter bots - automated accounts - and bot networks.
...
Aro won the Finnish Grand Prize for Journalism in March 2016 for her work.

Ilja Janitskin denies any links to Russia, while Johan Bäckman regularly appears on Russian media and is a well-known supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the New York Times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45902496

[DFW]

1. If we were that diligent in defending a free press

We'd have to rent out northern Mexico to house all the Republican felons.