(5 March 1942 – 18 March 2025) was a Finnish reporter who hosted his own show, '' Karpolla on asiaa'', from 1981 to 2007. He was a reporter for

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

from 1961 to 1981 before moving over to the competing network (

MTV3 MTV3 (, ) is a Finnish commercial television channel owned and operated by the media company MTV Oy, originally launched on 13 August 1957 as a programming block, becoming its own channel on 1 January 1993. It had the biggest audience share ...

). His own show was produced by his privately owned production company Pallosalama Oy which he founded in 1970. Karpo was awarded a Lifetime Achievement

Golden Venla The Golden Venla () is a Finnish television competition and gala organized by the (Televisioakatemia ry, which comprises MTV3, Yle, Sanoma Sanoma Corporation (, , formerly SanomaWSOY) is Finland's largest media group and a European educat ...

award in 2015 along with fellow TV personality

Riitta Väisänen Riitta Inkeri Väisänen (born 16 July 1954 in Turku) is a Finnish beauty queen, actress and TV host. In 1976, she became Miss Europe, after being the first runner-up of the Miss Suomi competition earlier the same year. She is best known as the h ...

Early life

Karpo was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

to a Finnish mother and a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

-born musician father, who spoke Finnish fluently and wanted to raise his son to be Finnish-speaking.

Show

Karpo's show ran for 26 years during which he received a number of death threats. His shows led to 37 trials and zero convictions for him. He has also been asked to run for politics by numerous parties but has continually refused to do so. Karpo awarded many of his guests with a piece of ''smoked

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

'' or an encased 100 mk (later €100) bill for speaking out. During the early run of the show Karpo also granted financial and material aid to guests on his show but stopped after feeling that his help was being exploited. Karpo also did not shy away from criticizing Finnish politics and bureaucracy. Indeed, many of his guests were people who felt that they were being mistreated through careless decision making. Others were people in positions or predicaments (either legal or financial) from which they could not seemingly find a way out of.

Personal life and death

Karpo was married to singer Raita Karpo (12 April 1941 - 11 October 2023) and they had two children. Karpo was a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the military reserve. Karpo had five different residences in Finland: Dalsbruk in the archipelago of

Kimitoön Kimitoön (; ; ) is a municipality and island of Finland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the municipalities of Dragsfjärd, Kimito and Västanfjärd were consolidated into a single municipality. The former municipal councils accepted the ...

Pakila Pakila () is a neighbourhood in Northern Helsinki, about nine kilometers from the city center. It comprises Länsi-Pakila ("West Pakila") and Itä-Pakila ("East Pakila"). Pakila has approximately 10 275 inhabitants.

Utsjoki Utsjoki (; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in Finland, the northernmost in the country. It is in Lapland and borders Norway as well as the municipality of Inari. The municipality was founded in 1876. It has a population of () and covers an area of ...

Vihtijärvi Vihtijärvi () is a village in the northeast part of Vihti municipality, Finland, between the borders of Nurmijärvi, Hyvinkää, Loppi and Karkkila. The population is about 500. The regional road 132 (Mt 132) between Loppi and Klaukkala runs thr ...

, and

Klaukkala Klaukkala (; , ) is the southern-most Urban areas in Finland, urban area () of the Nurmijärvi municipality in Uusimaa, Finland, located near Valkjärvi (lake), Lake Valkjärvi. It is the largest urban area in Nurmijärvi, and despite the fact th ...

. Karpo died on 18 March 2025, at the age of 83.

Karpocature

His distinctive appearance as a bearded man, with glasses with a furry hat () and a furry microphone with a frank and demanding voice has become a popular image of a hard-hitting reporter in Finland. Numerous Finnish comedians at various times have ''"done a Karpo"''. His famous catchphrase "" (''"Does this make any sense (to you)!?"'') is often a key-part of these caricaturistic impressions.

References

External Links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karpo, Hannu 1942 births 2025 deaths Finnish people of Russian descent Finnish television presenters Investigative journalists Mass media people from Helsinki