The issue of how the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle is funded — and potential cuts to that funding — proved to be a controversial topic of discussion during the first week of government formation talks.
In the view of Heikki Hellman, a media researcher and associate professor at the University of Tampere, the debate is linked to a wider movement against mainstream journalism.
Between 2013 to 2017, Hellman was a member of Yle's executive board.
"There is an idea, especially among the Finns Party members, that traditional journalism does not serve their interests and does not tell the right story about them," Hellman told news agency STT.
Media and communications policy researcher Marko Ala-Fossi, also from the University of Tampere, told STT that the debate around cutting Yle's funding is ideological.
"Cutting funding is not an end in itself, it is an attempt to achieve something else, to limit and prevent the production and availability of a certain type of content," Ala-Fossi noted.
The debate was re-ignited last week when Finns Party MP Sebastian Tynkkynen — who is participating in the government formation talks as a deputy leader of his party — asked his Twitter followers for their input on which Yle content or channels were not necessary.
National Coalition Party (NCP) leader Petteri Orpo, who is leading the formation talks, told reporters on Thursday that media and news content was not a matter for the government.
He reminded media, and other parties involved in the talks, that Yle policy is traditionally managed in parliament by cross-party consensus rather than by the government of the day.
Later that day, Tynkkynen wrote on Facebook that "Orpo made a big mistake by using his own powers to say that Yle's content production would not be touched".
On Friday, Orpo stressed that the negotiations to form the nation's next government will take place exclusively in the House of the Estates, and not on social media or through the media.
Tynkkynen's party leader Riikka Purra also stated on Friday that politicians cannot interfere in Yle's journalistic content.
Hellman believes that Tynkkynen's posts were an attempt to play to the gallery.
"This is aimed at their own [Finns Party] supporters," he noted.
As the second week of government formation talks kicks off on Monday, Tynkkynen is set to lead a group in discussions about communication and digitalisation, which will include media issues such as those related to Yle.
Parliamentary working group may consider funding
The fate of Yle's funding cannot be decided during government negotiations, Hellman pointed out.
"After all, Finland has a long tradition of all matters concerning the Finnish Broadcasting Company being decided between all parties in Parliament. The idea of cutting funding is a long way off," Hellman said.
How public service broadcasters are funded has been a topic of debate in many other European countries in recent years, with Hellman noting that Yle's funding is more secure than in other countries.
"If anything is going to happen, it will be through the appointment of a parliamentary working group to consider what can be done," he said.
"Not the right time" to cut funding
Finland's parliament elects 21 MPs to sit on Yle's executive committee at the beginning of each parliamentary term.
This committee is responsible for electing the Board of Directors and for ensuring that the terms of Yle's public service remit are met.
"We never get to talk about what the future mission of the public service broadcaster is really about, and what we want to achieve with it," he said, adding that public service broadcasting is especially important given the current geopolitical situation.
In Finland, Ala-Fossi further noted, Yle is the institution that seeks to maintain a normal and safe media environment as a counter-balance to disinformation and other kinds of misinformation that are on the rise.
"Russia is waging a hybrid war against us. I don't really know whether this is the right time to start cutting the funding of the Finnish Broadcasting Company," he said.
Yle tax costs between €0-163 per year
Last year, Yle's funding amounted to about 557 million euros, or 506 million euros after tax.
People in Finland pay the 'Yle tax' if their annual income after deductions exceeds 14,000 euros, with the amount paid ranging from between 0 to 163 euros per year — depending on the individual taxpayer's income level.
Criticism of Yle and the public service funding model has re-surfaced from time to time ever since the Broadcasting Act was passed 30 years ago, Hellman said, adding that between 2015 and 2018 Yle did not receive index increases, which normally cover general wage and cost increases.
"It was felt that Yle could also participate in making savings," Hellman recalled, adding that one example would be Yle cutting back on activities that could be handled by commercial broadcasters — such as various sporting events.
"I don't know if that is in the best interests of the people of Finland either. It's not the job of the public service broadcaster to offer only what the commercial channels don't want," Hellman noted.
Would you like a roundup of the week's top stories in your inbox every Thursday? Then sign up to receive our weekly email.
