Helsinki - A row continued to rage Friday in Finland over the hiring and subsequent firing of a female chief editor, allegedly due to her same-sex relationship.

Some 30 female students from Tampere College, north-west of Helsinki, staged a protest Friday outside the editorial offices of the Aamulehti daily, Finnish news agency STT reported.

Aamulethi is owned by the Alma Media group that had recently named Johanna Korhonen editor-in-chief of the Lapin Kansa newspaper, also part of the group.

Korhonen, currently editor-in-chief of the journalist union's newspaper, went public this week saying Alma Media had cancelled her contract at Lapin Kansa because she lives with another woman in a registered civil union.

Alma Media has cited "serious lack of trust" as the reason for its actions, but criticism of the media group's moves continued.

Journalists in the northern city of Rovaniemi, where Lapin Kansa, is published urged Alma Media chief executive Kai Telanne to resign along with the current editor-in-chief, Heikki Tuomi-Nikula.

Telanne on Thursday tried to defend the media group's stance, saying Korhonen had failed to state that her partner was running in the upcoming local elections in Vantaa, near Helsinki.

This breached the media group's rules on steering clear of party politics, he said.

That explanation was called into question since there was at least one known spouse of an Alma Media newspaper editor who was also politically active.

Police were also mulling a probe into possible discrimination of Korhonen, but were waiting to see if she planned to file a complaint. (dpa)