The Oulu-based Finnish cultural magazine Kaltio fired its editor Jussi Vilkuna after he refused to remove a cartoon on its website featuring Prophet Muhammad wearing a mask and discussing freedom of speech with a cartoonist.
The controversial cartoon has since been removed from the magazine's website.
After the posting of the cartoon, many permanent advertisers including the Finnish insurance companies Tapiola and Pohjola and the financial group Sampo announced that they would withdraw their advertisements from the magazine.
Harri Kynnös, the chairman of the board of the magazine, hopes nevertheless that the incident will have no permanent effect on the relations between Kaltio and its advertisers.
Chairman Kynnös defends the rapid dismissal of the editor by today's fast flow of information and by the misunderstandings the cartoon could create worldwide.
The sacked editor Jussi Vilkuna said that he published the cartoon by comic artist Ville Ranta, as he believed that it is the task of a cultural magazine to arouse debate on important issues including freedom of speech.
Jussi Vilkuna, 45, has been the editor of Kaltio for eight years. From now on he will concentrate on his other job as the headmaster of the Oulunsalo Art School.
Even the City of Oulu reacted to the stir caused by the cartoon, and cancelled the illustration it had already ordered from artist Ville Ranta for a book for schoolchildren featuring the life of Johan Vilhelm Snellman, one of the greatest statesman in Finnish history.
Artist Ville Ranta himself does not regret that he drew the cartoon, even though he is disappointed over the current situation. "While my belief in the cultural gang of Oulu has never been very high, I would never have imagined that such effective self-censorship exists here", noted Ranta.
