“That day, when I went to the police… It was really important that you were supporting me. You gave me a ride to the police station and also back home”, Finnish journalist Linda Pelkonen told her former editor-in-chief at the daily Uusi Suomi, Markku Huusko.

Three years after Pelkonen was targeted by an avalanche of death threats both on social media and via private messages, the International Press Institute (IPI) brought her and Huusko together to talk about what they have learned from that experience.

During a recent visit to Finland, IPI also had the opportunity to speak with Huusko more in-depth about the role that editors and media outlets should play in protecting their journalists from online harassment.

“What we learned was that we should, in these kind of cases, always talk and the editorial office should support the journalist who is under attack”, Huusko said. “It’s very important that your team stays side-by-side with the journalist, that she or he is not left alone.”

This interview is part of IPI’s #Ontheline project, which seeks to identify best practices for protecting journalists from online harassment. The project is supported by the Adessium Foundation and through the Safety of Female Journalists Online (#SOFJO) project led by the OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media.

See our full report on Finland here: http://ipi.media/programmes/ontheline/countering-online-harassment-in-newsrooms-finland/