Enemy of the People

When reporter Katja Salonen (Kreeta Salminen) begins investigating the dubious dealings of a well-known soccer star in Tampere, Finland, she has no idea what an aggressive can of worms she is about to stir up with her article. The seasoned journalist has only recently moved to the industrial city from Helsinki. Now she is despised by the city's inhabitants for her unpopular discoveries. Katja becomes the target of a modern-day witch hunt in the digital space, with the public turning against her and trying to destroy her through a systematic hate campaign. Against all odds, the labeled outsider fights to unravel the web of lies, deceit and abuse of power, at the heart of which lies a deadly conspiracy and an unsolved murder. But the masterminds behind the sophisticated Ponzi scheme, which conceals a huge fortune in cryptocurrency, are pulling out all the stops to protect themselves - and have no regard for human lives... A journalist with integrity who takes on corruption, a dubious cryptocurrency and character assassination in the social media: in the Finnish crime series “Enemy of the People”, a high-tension plot unfolds in which Katja's struggle in an editorial office that seems to have succumbed to resignation, the murder investigation and the perfidious conspiracy, including misogynistic hostility, are cleverly balanced. “It may come as a surprise that a Finnish series of all things is dealing with sexist online hatred towards a female journalist - after all, Finland, along with other Scandinavian countries, is considered a role model when it comes to equal rights. However, as an article in Der Standard, for example, points out, there are various indications that it is precisely the advanced emancipation in the Nordic countries that is increasingly leading to misogyny, which is then often unleashed online. In addition, several studies have shown that female journalists are particularly affected by the global violence against media professionals. They are more frequently exposed to sexist defamation, threats of violence and insults online. [...] The series Enemy of the People impressively addresses these unpleasant current developments. [...] Katja, as a flawed journalist who is nevertheless unwavering in her journalistic ethos, also interestingly stands out from the circle of employees in an editorial team that seems to consist in part of quite guileless to almost completely resigned colleagues. [... Quote: “Our job is to feed the monster that swallows facts and shits clickbait.”] In these moments, Enemy of the People seems to pick up on the exasperation in editorial offices about the high level of mistrust of the (non-)readership towards the so-called “system media” and the impending resignation among reporters as a result. The strength of the series is that even in the moment of triumph, the image of media professionals in the public eye does not finally change for the better, but the accusations of lies do not subside and the doubts remain with Katja and her colleagues: Can anything still be achieved with investigative reporting? Is anyone still interested in the truth?” (Dobrila Kontić from the German Association of Professional Journalists, on: dfjv.de) ----- When journalist Katja Salonen decides to write about the shady business dealings of Samuli Tolonen, a local football legend, she has no idea that she will trigger a chain of events that ends in murder. Overnight, Katja becomes the most hated person...