The big story on Wednesday morning did not make it to the print press, as it was published by Suomen Kuvalehti online at 3.36am. SK reports that Juha Sipilä sent dozens of emails to an Yle journalist responsible for last week's scoop that the former Talvivaara mine spent 500,000 euros on an order from a firm owned by relatives of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, just after the state-owned mine was granted an extra 100 million euros in state support.
SK reports that Yle managers dropped follow up stories over the weekend after Sipilä's intervention, and then this week asked discussion programmes not to focus on Sipilä's difficulties. One presenter was, according to SK, given a written warning after planning a programme with Sipilä-related content--but that warning was later rescinded.
Atte Jääskeläinen, Yle's head of news and current affairs, replied to the story with a comment piece published online. Jääskeläinen said that the Sipilä story led Yle's news agenda across all platforms for four days, and that by Monday it was time to put the matter in its proper perspective. Yle decided that stories on whether Sipilä should have recused himself should wait until after the Chancellor of Justice rules on the case, as legal experts would then have more information to form an opinion, writes Jääskeläinen.
The PM's emails did not play a part in Yle's decision-making, writes Jääskeläinen, and the story will be followed to its conclusion.
Guggenheim d-day
Helsingin Sanomat leads with a story on today's meeting of Helsinki city council, which will decide on the fate of the third attempt to build a Guggenheim museum in the city. This time round there is more private funding, in the form of low-cost loans, but it will still represent a hefty investment for the city.
HS has a double page spread on the project, with one side headlined 'yes' with an image of the swanky Guggenheim gallery, and the other page headlined 'no' with a picture of white vans in a ferry terminal car park (which is how the site looks now).
The paper does seem to have chosen a side, and an editorial confirms that it does indeed support a Guggenheim being built in Finland. It will be tight, though: a HS poll found that 36 of the 85 council members oppose the project, with 19 supporting it and the rest either undecided or unwilling to say.
The project's Finnish pilot, Kuopio banker Ari Lahti, tells the paper that this will in any case be the final attempt to bring the art franchise to Finland.
Presidential apologies
Finland is preparing to celebrate a hundred years of independence in 2017, and in honour of the occasion President Sauli Niinistö is heading off on a tour of Finland's 19 provinces. Ilta-Sanomat reports on Wednesday, however, that the president will be alone for many of thos trips: the first lady Jenni Haukio will have to miss some of them as she's studying.
Niinistö apologises for the absence, and says some crowds have been disappointed to be stuck with him. The presidential pair will make the first trip together, to Lapland in February, but after that Haukio's presence will be more sporadic.
One possible guest in the centennial year is Vladimir Putin.
"The will definitely be discussed too," Niinistö told IS. "We've met President Putin every year."
