Two Helsingin Sanomat journalists - Tuomo Pietiläinen, 39, and Anssi Miettinen, 28 - were winners of the Bonnier journalists' prize for Story of the Year in 2002. The prize is awarded annually by the Swedish Bonnier media concern.

   

At a ceremony in Helsinki on Wednesday evening the two won the prize for their revelations that executives of the telecommunications service provider Sonera had illegally investigated the telephone records of their employees. The apparent purpose of the illegal tracing of calls was to find out which employees had been leaking negative information about the company to the press.

   

The scoop was published in October last year.

The news sparked a sequence

of events which resulted in the arrest of a number of Sonera executives suspected of violations of communications confidentiality.

   

The police investigations are still underway, and no indictments have yet been served. Despite initial threats, Sonera has not sued Helsingin Sanomat over the story.

The Bonnier prize

comprises three different series. Martti Hosia, Moscow correspondent of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), was named Journalist of the Year for his reports on the conflict in Chechnya.

   

The prize for innovations in journalism went to the newspaper Iisalmen Sanomat.

   

The prize in each series is EUR 7,500, which Pietiläinen and Miettinen say they will split 50-50.

   

The two say that their success was significantly helped by the fact that Helsingin Sanomat Editor-in Chief Janne Virkkunen was convinced already at an early stage that the two were on to something big.

   

After that the two were allowed plenty of time to investigate the story, even working during their summer holiday. The investigation took more than a year.

Miettinen and Pietiläinen

feel that the most difficult part of the work of an investigative journalist is to sort out the factual information from all of the rumours. Pietiläinen says that patience was also important - lest they publish an incomplete story.

   

The two began to suspect that something funny was going on when Anssi Miettinen noticed that some Sonera employees preferred not to use their own telephones when talking to journalists.

   

Miettinen says that an investigative journalist needs to have a good psychological eye. Although one must not treat sources aggressively, it is important to be resilient. Trust cannot be established at a first meeting with a source: it has to be built up over a longer period of time.