When presidents Trump and Putin met in Helsinki in May 2018, all of the billboards between the airport and the city were filled with news headlines which were greeting them, in English and in Russian: "Mr. President, welcome to the land of the free press". The legal, institutional and structural basis for free media and free journalism remained intact throughout the year 2019. In addition several positive initiatives were prepared within relevant ministries to limit the abuse of the freedom of speech in the social media in the form of hate speech, stalking and targeting of journalists, as well as many other professionals, with the purpose of silencing them. Unfortunately such behaviour was encouraged by some politicians by means of their own actions and so far both the government and the parliament have failed to take pertinent action in accordance with guidelines proposed by many advocacy groups. Due to the vagueness and weakness of existing legal norms some law enforcement officials have been unwilling to investigate and some courts reluctant to take action even in the most notorious cases and therefore review of applicable laws and strong precedent cases would urgently be required.