A complaint has been filed with the Parliamentary Ombudsman over social media posts by Finland's Ombudsman for Children, Elina Pekkarinen, last weekend.
In the posts on X, which were widely reported in Finnish media, Pekkarinen described intervening after she saw a mother striking a crying baby at a tram stop in Helsinki.
Pekkarinen said she wanted to highlight the incident as a means of shining a spotlight on the problem of domestic violence against children in Finland.
In one of her posts, Pekkarinen described the mother as being "not a native Finn and did not know the customs of the country".
However, one eyewitness told Helsingin Sanomat that the situation did not unfold as Pekkarinen claimed — noting in particular that the mother did not at any point hit the child.
Iltalehti also interviewed two people who said they were at the tram stop at the time, with both telling the tabloid that the sequence of events unfolded differently to that described by Pekkarinen, with one of them saying the Ombudsman for Children's behaviour was "frightening".
The Parliamentary Ombudsman's role is to investigate complaints about public authorities or officials if there is a suspicion that a criminal offence has taken place.
According to Yle's information, the police have also opened a preliminary investigation into the incident at the tram stop on Saturday.
Yle has so far been unable to reach Pekkarinen, although a press release from her office stated that she cannot comment on the case while a criminal investigation is underway.
