Helsinki councillor warned after posting students’ names

Helsinki city councillor and lawyer Otto Meri of the National Coalition Party has received a warning from his council group for posting a list of students’ names on social media, Yle reports.

The group discussed the post on Wednesday and heard Meri’s account, group chair Matias Pajula said in a Facebook post. Pajula called the post a failure and said it was good that Meri deleted it. He said the group considers the matter closed.

Last week, Meri posted on X a screenshot of students admitted to Stadin ammattiopisto, a vocational college. He questioned the number of names that sounded foreign-language. The college later removed the list, and Meri deleted his post, saying he did so because the list had been taken off the college’s website.

The post drew widespread criticism. Meri told Yle that he apologised to his council group at Wednesday’s meeting and acknowledged that the wording and the mention of names had backfired, caused harm and taken the discussion in the wrong direction.

Meri said he takes the warning seriously but intends to continue being direct and honest on social media.