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Wednesday's papers: Blaze kills 2 children, cops keep peace in Järvenpää, Yle explains showing blackface comedy

The papers on Wednesday featured stories about a tragic house fire which claimed the lives of two children in northern Ostrobothnia. Ten police units were called in to prevent some 150 youths from a planned brawl in Järvenpää. One paper asked an Yle programme chief why the network is planning to broadcast a 1960 Finnish movie called 'Pekka and Pätkä as Niggers.'

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Image: Yle

Several papers recounted the tragic house fire which took the lives of two children in the small northern Ostrobothnian municipality of Pattijoki.

According to Ilta-Sanomat, a fire broke out in a row of houses on Järventoläntie in the middle of Monday night which killed two children; aged six and 10 years.

The family's father managed to escape the blaze with one of his children and were hospitalised, according to the paper.

The fire entirely destroyed the row house's four flats, but the occupants of two other apartments managed to escape without assistance from rescue workers. The fourth flat of the row house was not occupied at the time of the blaze.

Emergency services first received a call about the fire at 12:40 am on Tuesday, reportedly made by a neighbour who was alerted to the fire by the smell of smoke and the ringing of a smoke alarm. Several other calls to 112 from surrounding homes were also subsequently made.

By the time fire rescue personnel arrived at the scene the structure was already fully engulfed in flames, the paper reports.

Because the cause of the fire remained unknown, fire officials had not yet commented about the tragedy by the time an online update was posted on Wednesday morning.

Police avert brawl of 150 youths

Ten police units convened in the southern town of Järvenpää after reports of a large group of youths were gathering outside the local Prisma shopping centre complex at about 7 pm on Tuesday.

Police told Ilta-Sanomat that they had information the youths had planned to fight and that ten units were required to calm down the situation.

There were reportedly some incidents of vandalism, but due to the police presence there were not any criminal reports made, according to the paper. Police and the youths left the scene around 10 pm.

Police told the paper they have not received clarification about the reasons behind the planned fight.

Yle defends broadcast of blackface movie

TV and radio guides are featured towards the back of many newspapers. On Wednesday afternoon Yle TV1 continues its weekday tradition of broadcasting old Finnish movies - usually films made between 1940 and the 1960s.

But this time is a little different, points out Swedish-language daily HBL's TV reviewer Malin Slotte, because in this film the Finnish comedy duo Pekka and Pätkä are featured in blackface.

Released in 1960, their final film Pekka and Pätkä neekereinä is roughly translated to Pekka and Pätkä as Niggers.

The comedy film stars Pekka and Pätkä are sometimes referred to as the Finnish version of the Hollywood classic duo Laurel and Hardy.

TV reviewers generally just write up a blurb about upcoming programmes, perhaps occasionally mentioning whether or not they are worthwhile to watch. But Slotte took it upon herself to ask Yle TV1's programming chief Pentti Väliahdet why the movie is being shown.

He told her that Yle is charged with presenting Finnish film's cultural history, saying that the time and period in which the movie was made needs understanding and context, saying with that broader view it was originally not meant to be racist.

"When the movie was made the word [neekeri] didn't have a racist tone," Väliahdet told the paper. "It became [considered] racist later on. At the time this was the only name they gave the movie, and we don't have the legal rights to change it," he told the paper.

"The movie is from a time when there weren't any dark skinned people here," he said. "I doubt that anyone [back then] wanted to make anyone look like a fool. The movie should be seen today as a snapshot of a time when we'd bunkered ourselves in and weren't able to see the world with open eyes."

It should be noted that the main characters are in blackface only during part of the film, but there is reportedly a scene that when they are wearing blackface another character calls them "cannibals."

The paper writes that Yle does not plan to put the film in any particular historical context when it airs on Wednesday at 1:30 pm. There has also reportedly not been internal discussion at the public broadcaster about showing the film.

"We also haven't received any reaction from the public about the fact that we're broadcasting it," Väliahdet told the paper.

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