FINLAND 1. TV VIEWERS PARTICIPATION IN FINLAND. 1.1 Government bodies. 1.2 Self-Regulation. By Anja Herzog

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1 Broadcasting and Citizens FINLAND By Anja Herzog 1. TV VIEWERS PARTICIPATION IN FINLAND Finland has a dual broadcasting system 1 in which the public broadcaster YLE is the dominating actor with an audience share of 44 % (2003). 2 YLE operates two national channels, TV 1 and TV 2 and three digital channels for news, culture and full Swedish language programming, as well as one digital satellite channel with a selection of YLE and MTV 3 programmes. 3 There is almost no regional television in Finland anymore with the exceptions of Närpiö, Kristiinankaupunki and Tampere. The two commercial private channels are MTV 3 (operated by MTV Oy) and Channel 4 Nelonen Oy (operated by Ruutunelonen Ab). 4 A general trend, not only in Finland, is that TV consumption is increasing. 5 The Finnish accountability system has got many different features and seems to be quite elaborated. Several possibilities for viewers participation can be found: representation in the administrative board of the public service broadcaster, extensive audience research, contact forms and telephone lines for viewers feedback on the broadcasters, a self-regulation council, government bodies, a consumer ombudsman and last but not least viewer organisations. The efficiency of these institutions varies to some extent. This is why the question about the degree of viewer participation in the Finnish broadcasting system is difficult to answer. In any case, it seems clear that a European initiative would be interesting and maybe helpful for the viewers organisations in Finland. For an overview on the relevant institutions dealing with viewer interests see the table at the end of this chapter. 1.1 Government bodies The Ministry of Transport and Communication is responsible for the technical infrastructure of the electronic media and the granting of licences. The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) supervises compliance with the Act on Television and Radio Operations as well as licence conditions. (see 2.3) Complaints can be filed to FICORA as well, but this is done to a much smaller extent than to the Council for Mass Media. (see 2.4) In the 1970s the Ministry of Education 6 invented media education and with this media literacy as a task of children s education. In 1994 a new curriculum for comprehensive schools was published with three general aims for media education: pupils learn 1) to understand the process of reception (understand media texts and their production etc.), 2) to produce media texts on their own, 3) to work with different means of communication (computer, internet etc.) Self-Regulation In Finland a strong self-regulatory institution is the Council for Mass Media 8, which is a self-regulation committee for publishers and journalists in the field of mass communication (see 3.2) to which the individual can file a complaint. Its general task is to identify good professional practice as well as to defend freedom of speech and publication. Together with the Union of Journalists in Finland the CMM has set up guidelines for good journalistic practise, providing a basis for decisions concerning the right to reply or for correction 9. These rights are also laid down in the Freedom of Expression Media Act. Apart from this the viewers can complain or express their opinions directly to the broadcasters public service as 75

2 Finland well as commercial via telephone line (tape) or internet form. In both ways there is no direct feedback, but Mrs. Saari (FICORA) states that the broadcasters deal with the statements correctly and carefully and use them as the feedback they need to offer a successful programme. The broadcasters do not publish results or reports of this feedback as they are not forced to do this by law. The Finnish viewers are furthermore taken into account by audience research. The Finnish public service broadcaster YLE does an annual inquiry, including issues like e.g. audience expectations of television and radio channels, satisfaction with programming (see 3.3). There are also discussion forums on the YLE website on which viewers can debate their assessments of TV-programmes. The Administrative Council of YLE is obliged to deliver an annual report to parliament and the management has to supply FICORA (Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority) with an annual report regarding public service activities of YLE, which will be commented on by FICORA in front of parliament. The Finnish public broadcaster YLE is requested by law to have an Administrative Council whose members are elected by parliament (see 2.3). 1.3 Other organisations There is the Consumer Ombudsman, whose task is to ensure consumers economic, health and legal position. His powers in the field of television are restricted to the supervision of advertising and marketing. The Finnish Consumer Ombudsman supervises compliance with the ethical principles applying to teleshopping spots and protects children and minors from the adverse effects, whether moral or physical. 10 Complaints can be filed with him via forms. The Consumer Agency/Ombudsman pointed out to the fact, that while in Finland analogue television will be replaced by digital in 2007 and radical changes in people s habits of viewing as well as production of television programmes will take place, little attention has been paid to the consumer viewpoint in communication policy, television production or in researches into digital broadcasting. But it can be assumed that the advent of digital television will stimulate discussion about the subject, and this will give the Consumer Agency the welcome opportunity to bring out and emphasize the consumers viewpoint. According to the viewpoint of the Consumer Ombudsman for the time being, the only possibility for Finnish consumers to influence television programmes is to give feedback to the producers of the programmes. Moreover, there is the Finnish, a non-commercial broadcaster run by citizens, offering among others a platform for citizens. Kansan Radioliitto Ry 11 is a registered member of the European Alliance of Listeners and Viewers Associations (Euralva), and also deals with questions of communication politics. Apart from this, there are several other similar organisations in Finland, but in the last years they focus almost exclusively on their broadcasting function. In addition, some years ago Pro Yleisö 12 was founded, an organisation with the task to support the public service broadcasting in Finland (see 3.1). 2. TV VIEWERS RIGHTS: THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 2.1 Sector specific regulation In Section 12 of the Finnish Constitution the freedom of expression and right of access to information are codified. This means the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prevention 13 is laid down here. The Tort Liability Act fixes the liability of individuals for their actions in case of causing damage to somebody. The liability of publishers and broadcasters for injuries and losses arising from their operations can be derived from this act. 76

3 Broadcasting and Citizens The Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass Media, which was implemented in the beginning of 2004, completing the constitutional provisions on Freedom of Expression, contains more detailed directions on the exercise of freedom of expression in mass media communication. It regulates specific duties concerning regular publishing and broadcasting. Basically it codifies that interfering with media activities will only be justifiable if it is unavoidable 14. The most important change achieved through this act is that the Right of Reply (Sec. 8) has now come into effect also for network publications 15, and broadcast programmes on a frequent basis. An individual, who has a justifiable reason for considering a message offensive, has the right to have a reply published in the same publication or programme. The procedure for handling demands for reply or correction has become more bureaucratic. 16 Beyond this the act encompasses the Right to Correction (Sec. 9) for private individuals, corporations, foundations and public authorities. An informational error within the content of a periodical, a network publication or program, which is not of minor significance, must be corrected in the same publication or in another program by the broadcaster in question. 17 The act also provides for the Duty to publish a reply or correction (Sec.10) and the procedure about how to Demand for a reply or correction (Sec.11). This act will be described in greater detail below. (see: 2.4. Complaints Procedure) The Act on Yleisradio Oy 18 deals with ownership, organisational structures, administration and public service duties of YLE. As special duties involving public service, the company shall adhere to principles such as diversity, equal treatment of different language groups and ethnic/cultural minorities, broadcasting of Finnish productions, support of democracy and Finnish culture, availability to all citizens, contribution to transcultural/transnational dialogue by supplying the Finnish view. The Act provides advertising and sponsoring rules and Sections implement the regulation according to the directives of the European Commission. 2.2 Regulatory practices for positive and negative content regulation With the Act on Yleisradio Oy advertising or sponsored programmes are prohibited for YLE. But it is possible that the annual general meeting can make amendments to the act, enabling activities besides those of public service nature. These must be kept separate from public service operations. The Act on the Classification of Audiovisual Programmes provides for the classification of motion pictures and other comparable recordings, such as films or video cassettes and includes provisions on restrictions concerning display and supply. The Act on Television and Radio Operations commits broadcasters not to broadcast programmes which may cause detriment to the development of children 19 during time where children could watch it. Yet, if such programmes are scheduled during those times, there has to be a preceding announcement of the detrimental effect 20. This does not apply for encoded channels though. A press release of FICORA (Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority) from the 24 th March 2004 states that self-regulation mechanisms are to be increased. There is a new self-regulation agreement aiming at more effective control of programmes regarding their harmfulness to children. With the new agreement, coming into effect in the summer of 2004, there would be clear restrictions regarding broadcasting times. According to the new agreement, programmes classified as K 18 (restricted for children under 18) can then not be broadcast before 11 pm, those classified K 15 not before 9 pm and those classified K 11 not before 5 pm. Information about reasons for the respective classification will be added to programme listings and will be shown in trailers and pre-announcements. FICORA postulates that programmes with pornographic content are not to be broadcast before midnight

4 Finland 2.3 Instruments established by law The Ministry of Transport and Communication supervises the development and provides general guidance to television and radio broadcasting. It is separated into three departments, one of them the Communication Department, responsible for communications and mass media policy. The ministry s website is translated into six different languages and equipped with a feedback facility for visitors. 22 The Act on Yleisradio Oy defines for YLE, the Finnish public service broadcaster, to have as an administrative organ besides a Board of Directors and a Director General, the Administrative Council. The members of the council are elected by parliament and have to be representatives of different social fields like science, art, education, business and economics as well as of different social and language groups. As a matter of fact, the members of the Council represent the different political parties in the parliament. Among other duties regarding budget decisions, election of Board of Directors and Director General, controlling activities in matters of annual report, implementation of decisions or the like, it has the duty of ensuring the implementation of public service obligations. 23 The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) monitors television and radio programmes to ensure their compliance with the statutory requirements on European works programming, advertising and sponsorship as well as with the Act on Television and Radio Operations and licence conditions. Furthermore, it collects television and licence fees. Even though it already exists since 1980, the possibility to complain to FICORA does not seem to be very well known among the public. As Mrs. Saari points out there are less than 100 complaints a year. Thus, the role of the FICORA is probably not very well known. The complaints the FICORA deals with are mostly on content harmful for children and on advertisements. People do not complain about, e.g. poor quality of the programmes. In general, the protection of minors seems to be the most important topic for the viewers. 2.4 Complaints procedures The Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass Media in Sec. 10 and 11 describes the procedures of making use of the right to reply or correction. The demanding party must present their claim to the responsible editor within 14 days. The demand must be presented in a way that makes subsequent alteration by one party impossible and keeps it accessible to both parties. A rejection has to be announced to the demanding party within seven days of reception, stating the respective reasons for the decision. This will happen in written form upon request. It is left to the demanding party to file the rejection with the District Court of the respective domicile or that of Helsinki, but only within 30 days of receiving the written explanatory statement of rejection. The Council for Mass Media is a self-regulating committee for publishers and journalists without legal jurisdiction. The members voluntarily adhere to the ethical principles as stated by the council. Every individual has the possibility to announce a violation of guidelines. In case the violation has been proved true, the CMM will draft a statement, which must be published by the party in violation. The CMM can also initiate an investigation of possible violation of ethical guidelines on its own, but only under certain circumstances. 24 Together with the Union of Journalists in Finland the CMM has prepared guidelines for good journalistic practise which also include provisions regarding the right to reply or correction (No ) and protection of individuals (No ). These guidelines also state that the right to reply or correction has to be granted without delay to anybody with a reasonable request. Even the case of a reply not fit for publication is mentioned, as it is said that if the respective person can not be contacted for a discussion about it, the reply advisably should be published in the amended way but not changed in its essential content. 25 On the website of the CMM the complaints procedure is described as follows: A complaint may be filed by any individual requesting the investigation of a matter concerning breach of good professional practice or the freedom 78

5 Broadcasting and Citizens of speech and publication. The matter does not have to directly concern the person issuing the complaint. The CMM requires, however, that this person consent to the investigation. The CMM will not investigate complaints submitted anonymously, nor unless there are special reasons complaints where more than three months have passed since the original publication. The complaint has to be submitted in writing and needs to be signed. No other formal requirements are necessary. Assistance may be sought from the secretary of the CMM when necessary. The complaint should specify precisely what article, programme, photograph or practice it concerns. If the complaint concerns a magazine publication, it is advised that a clipping from the issue be attached. Complaints concerning radio or television programmes should include the exact date, channel and time of broadcast. Complaints concerning electronic publications on the Internet have to include the exact Internet address. The person filing the complaint may also submit other attachments. The CMM may request additional information and verbal statements from the parties involved in the matter. The complaint may be filed through the general post or as electronic post. 3. VIEWERS ORGANISATIONS SOCIAL IMPACT 3.1 Case study 1: Kansan Radioliiton (KaRa) & Pro Yleisö According to an interview with Esa Ylikoski, KaRa has got two aims: The first, similar to British viewers and listeners organisations, is to participate in communication politics, to participate in the public discussion as a civil society actor. On this behalf seminars and public panel discussions have been held and for this reason KaRa is participating in Euralva. The second aim is to further media education and to provide citizens with the possibility to participate in local radio, which is why KaRa has got its own radio station. Local groups, minority groups as well as municipality organisations may produce their own programmes at this station. During the last 15 years the second aim became the main purpose of KaRa, as the participants started to work in the local media. There are also co-operations between KaRa and the local community radios. A very recent development is the foundation of Pro Yleisö 26 (Pro Public) in the last year. It is an association of voluntary participants that are concerned with media quality. Their aim is to strengthen public service broadcasting. The organisation demands high quality programming and a reduction of low quality programmes and programmes like serials and reality TV bought from USA. This is a larger and broader organisation than KaRa, because the members are representatives of different political parties and social groups operating on a national level. The influence of this organisation is due to activities like bringing issues on the public agenda. Discussions and seminars, partly organised in cooperation with communication researchers from the University in Tampere, petitions and resolutions have been brought to public attention through this organisation. Concerning the European dimension, Mr. Ylikoski states that he thinks this dimension should be strengthened and the networking should be improved at this level. The participants of KaRa have always been active on this international field, in EURALVA as well as in AMARC, the World Associations of Community radios. KaRa and Mr. Ylikoski personally would be very interested in participating in EVA. 3.2 Case study 2: Council for Mass Media The Council for Mass Media is a self-regulatory institution of the mass media, established in 1968, which observes good journalistic practice as well as the freedom of the press. Accordingly, the Council deals with violations of good journalistic practice on the basis of a complaint filed to it by citizens or on its own initiative. If the Council regards a medium as having violated good journalistic practice, it has to publish the resolution of the Council without delay and without direct comment. The CMM is comprised of a president and nine members. Of the nine members, six represent areas of expertise in the field of mass media, and three represent the public at large. The president and representatives of the public 79

6 Finland are elected by the council itself. They may not be employees or board members of any company or organization engaging in mass media. The media representatives are appointed by a separate selection committee, which is comprised of representatives of media organizations affiliated to the CMM. The framework of the CMM s operations are stipulated in a Charter, which is signed by all the organizations which have committed to themselves to self-regulation and accepted its objectives. According to the task of the Council everybody has got the possibility to complain about radio and TV broadcasts as well as about newspaper and magazine articles and nowadays as well about articles of newspapers etc., which are available in the Internet. The Council gets approximately 30 complaints per year, 20 % of which are about radio or TV. The vast majority of complaints is about articles in newspapers. Concerning the issues the complaints deal with, Mr. Hänninen said that half of the complaints are on individual rights that have been violated. Another important issue is surreptitious advertising. Mr. Hänninen thinks that not many people know about the possibility to complain at the Council for Mass Media, although all decisions are published. But this is no major problem in his view as the people find out on the possibilities to complain if they feel bothered about an article or broadcast. In general, in Finland two systems can be seen, two ways to get ones right: to complain at the Council or to go to court. The latter one is chosen, if someone wants to get money for the violation of his or her right. 3.3 Case study 3: Audience research by the public service broadcaster YLE Since 1997 the Finnish public broadcaster YLE monitors people s views and attitudes to YLE s public service function regularly and publishes the results in several languages. A fundamental part of the inquiry deals with questions on the importance of the different public service functions like availability of programmes to all Finnish people, children s or educational programmes, services for special-needs groups etc. The respondents are asked to refer to the functions as a matter of principle ( You may not be interested in some programmes yourself, but you might still like YLE to broadcast them. ). In general, there seems to be a broad approval for public service functions. Some values like to look after the weaker members of the community and diversity in radio and television were approved by the survey as well, although an influence of considerations of social acceptability must be taken into account. Apart from the look at expectations on public service functions the viewing patterns of the Finnish population are taken into account. For instance, Finnish television viewers spend more time watching factual programmes with YLE than with commercial broadcasters, in other words: Half of all the programming viewed on YLE s TV1 consists of news and current affairs programmes, documentaries and other factual programming. Another field of audience research are viewers attitudes towards YLE in general and towards the television fee. In the ranking of public trust in institutions in Finland YLE finds itself at no. 8 (after the president of the Republic, the police forces, the armed forces, the red cross, the school system, universities, Finair and ahead of the judicial system, the state, the church, the social insurance institutions etc.). Concerning the television fee 42 % of the respondents regard revenues from the television fee as the best alternative, 35 % are in favour of advertising revenues. Another question dealt with the value-for-money assessment of the television fee, the figures for very good value and rather good value saw a decline in the last years, but still are together at 55 %. Trends in television viewing (teletext and internet services and radio listening) in different socio-demographic groups are monitored as well as audience expectations of television (and radio) channels, images of and satisfaction with programming (news programmes as well as children s programmes etc.). This research in combination with the direct feed back of viewers seems to give YLE a good basis for its orientation at audience interests. 80

7 Broadcasting and Citizens 4. BEST AND INNOVATIVE PRACTICES Among the different features of the Finnish accountability system three seemed to be especially interesting: the media literacy education in comprehensive schools, the extensive audience research of the public broadcaster YLE and the combination of viewers organisation and community radio function by Kansan Radioliitto. The Finnish Ministry of Education adheres the great importance of media in the life of children and adults and therefore developed a complex curriculum for comprehensive schools. Different levels of media literacy were defined and accordingly teaching methods and aims were implemented. To develop the ability to resume on media products in a critical way is a central aim of these programmes. The audience research of the public broadcaster YLE is quite extensive and asks for the opinion on the programmes of YLE in a regular and differentiated way. This might be a helpful instrument to take the viewers interests into account for the company s policy. With Kansan Radioliitto exists a long running organisation dealing with viewer interests and with practical radio production at the same time. This is probably a good combination as high quality of programmes defines from a practical point of view. Another advantage might be that opinions of viewers or listeners perhaps can be expressed via independent community radio and TV to a broader audience than usually. Annex: List of bodies / people contacted - Esa Ylikoski, Kansan Radioliiton (viewers organisation) - Merija Saari, Head of Communication Services, FICORA - Pronin Päivi, Consumer Agency (Consumer Ombudsman) NOTES 1 In Finland there is the peculiarity of the Åland islands being autonomous and thus having a broadcasting system of their own Ibid Ibid See Ritva-Sini Härkönen: Medienmenue für kritisch-kreative Mediennutzer. Medienerziehung in Finnland, in: Medien Concret 1/1998, pp Guidelines are available at 10 While there is no legal definition of children or minors regarding advertising Ibid. 15 Which means a set of network messages, arranged into a coherent whole comparable to a periodical, from material produced or processed by the publisher, and intended to be issued regularly ; 81

8 Finland 16 Ibid Those programmes according to self-regulation agreements, would be marked with K in programme listings. See: info@proyleiso.org 82

9 FINLAND - Overview of institutions dealing with viewers' interests