Is it true that Donald Duck is banned in Finland?

According to a widespread urban legend, Finnish authorities have banned comics and cartoons featuring one of Disney's most famous characters. We checked how true this is.

It’s easy to find publications on the Internet whose authors report similar censorship of Donald Duck. Such materials are available, for example, on "Yandex.Zene" and the radio station website "Silver Rain", users write about it Facebook and publics "VKontakte". The author of the selection on the Adme website even clarifies: “The Helsinki Youth Committee believes that these cartoons distort family values, threaten morality and promote an unhealthy desire for money.”

In the early 1950s, the largest Finnish media company, Sanoma, decided to expand its business. Yes, she received from the Disney Corporation a license to publish comics about Donald Duck. In the Finnish edition, the character was given the name Aku Ankka (literally "Aku the duck") and quickly became popular among local readers, magazines about this hero were published in huge circulations.

The legend is that the authorities banned the "obscene" character, originates in the 1970s. In 1977, Helsinki politician Matti Holopainen proposed saving on the purchase of magazines for youth centers, in particular, purchasing not popular but expensive comics, but cheaper publications about various hobbies and sports. A year later, Holopainen ran for the national parliament, and the press recalled this initiative to him. At the same time, journalists exaggerated the story, calling the politician “the man who banned Donald Duck from entering Helsinki.” Holopainen ultimately lost those elections. The initiative to save budgetary funds in Helsinki (as well as several years earlier in the city of Kemi) gave rise to numerous publications in the media around the world, the authors of which talked about the “ban” of the character due to his lack of pants and unclear marital status.

Despite such media publications, the popularity of Aku Ankki in the country has only grown - because of this, even appeared version that the story about the “ban” of the duck without pants was actually an advertising campaign invented by either Disney or Sanoma. In any case, it is now easy to verify the absence of such a ban: in 2010, a magazine about Aku Ankka remained one of the three best-selling in Finland. There is also a special website, where users can buy comics about their favorite character in Finnish (including those that were recently published) and themed souvenirs. In 2001 Finnish post released a block of stamps dedicated to Aku Ankka, and the author of the Donald Duck comics, Don Rosa, became a real star in the country. He repeatedly came in Helsinki for meetings with readers, and in 1999 published comic book The Quest for Kalevala, in which the story of Donald Duck and his relatives is intertwined with the famous Finnish epic.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Snopes. Was Donald Duck Banned in Finland Because He Doesn’t Wear Pants?
2. Finnish thematic site Aku Ankka
3. Article about Aku Annka on the Finnish portal Yle