18:45 Helsinki time Tuesday 16.3.2010

Immigration experts face racist harassment


Finnish researchers into issues related to immigration have increasingly become victims of online threats against themselves and their families.

Some of them have withdrawn from public discussions rather than face the intimidation.

University of Helsinki Chancellor Ilkka Niiniluoto does not know of a time when the Finnish scientific community had faced such attacks.

“It could be compared with situations in history such as the Soviet Union of the time of Stalin, or when Galileo Galilei was victimised by the Inquisitionâ€