Finnish Media Policy: Less Restrictive, More Directive

Abstract

Finland, along with the other Nordic countries, provides one of the world’s freest environments regarding press freedom, political rights, and civic liberties, as proved by the Reporters without Borders and Freedom House rankings for many years. The World Democracy Audit ranks Finland in 2010 as the first in democracy and press freedom, and the fourth in anticorruption level out of a total of 150 countries (World Democracy Audit, 2010). Against this background, it is fair to argue that the main focus of Finnish media policy today is not the protection of the media freedom or freedom of expression at large. Instead, ongoing structural changes in the media (commercialisation, ownership concentration, and ever increasing competition), together with the gradual ‘mediatisation’ of politics (Hjarvard, 2008; Strömbäck, 2008), have brought the issue of responsible use of these freedoms to the attention of media regulators and the public. Media policy is directed towards securing the population a plurality of choices among channels, programmes, and platforms, and providing access to information in all possible ways (Nieminen, Aslama and Pantti, 2005).