Islam Times - 300 mocking billboards installed on route from Helsinki airport to Trump-Putin summit

300 mocking billboards installed on route from Helsinki airport to Trump-Putin summit

Islam Times - The meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is being mocked by the largest newspaper in Finland.

Nearly 300 billboards were installed on the route from the airport to the site of the summit in the Finnish capital Helsinki, according to a Sunday press release by Kaius Niemi, the editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat.

“Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press,” reads one of the billboards as shown in one of the photos shared by Niemi.

The billboards are filled “with news headlines regarding presidents’ attitude towards the press freedom,” Niemi said in a tweet.

The release further cited the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, in which Finland is rated fourth in terms of press freedom while the US is 45th and Russia 48th.

“This is a statement on behalf of critical and high quality journalism,” Niemi said in the release. “As we welcome the presidents to the summit in Finland, we want to remind them of the importance of free press.”

“The media shouldn’t be the lap dog of any president or regime."

One of the billboards features a February headline, reading “Trump calls media enemy of the people.”

The US and Russian leaders are set to meet in the Finnish capital on Monday.

Ahead of touching down in Helsinki on Sunday evening, Trump tweeted that “much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people,” predicting that he would get negative press coverage “no matter how well” the summit goes.

According to Niemi, Helsingin Sanomat intends to “remind them of the importance of free press.”