Comments invited on government proposal on amending the Act on the Finnish Broadcasting Company

Comments are invited on the government proposal on amending section 7 of the Act on the Finnish Broadcasting Company. The deadline for comments is 31 August 2020.

The aim of the proposal is to specify the role of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE, as a public service media house and to bring the regulation on the company into line with EU state aid rules. The proposed provisions would generally allow YLE to provide text content only for the purpose of supporting broadcasts or releases containing video or audio material.

The proposed provisions would clarify the current regulation in terms of the operating environment for commercial media. The purpose is also to ensure that YLE can continue providing text content as part of public service broadcasting.

In the future, YLE would not be able to publish text content, if it was not linked with a broadcast or release containing video or audio material. The restrictions would not apply to text content that YLE publishes based on cooperation with the Finnish News Agency STT; contents related to breaking news situations, official bulletins broadcast under law; regional news content in text form published in Swedish; news content in text form in Sámi and Romani languages or addressed to other minority language groups in Finland; as well as cultural and educational text content.

The background for the amendment is a complaint filed by the Finnish Media Federation (Finnmedia) with the European Commission on 21 July 2017, due to which the Finnish authorities have negotiated with the European Commission on necessary amendments to Finnish legislation.

The Act is expected to enter into force as soon as possible.

What are the next steps?

The deadline for comments on the proposal is 31 August 2020. The request for opinions is available online at www.lausuntopalvelu.fi.

Organisations and private individuals are invited to comment online at www.lausuntopalvelu.fi or by email to [email protected]. Following the consultation round, Ministry officials will continue the preparations for the Act.

Inquiries

Sini Wirén, Director of Unit, tel. +358 40 507 0,916

Kreetta Simola, Senior Adviser, tel. +358 50 568 7155

Emil Asp, Senior Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 40 509 9757