The Government has proposed in its supplementary budget to provide one million euros in support of news and current affairs on channels serving the public interest. In addition, the remainder of media innovation support, on which decisions had been made earlier, will be reallocated so that it can be used for supporting news and current affairs on public interest television channels.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications will draft a Government decree, which will define the criteria, terms and conditions for the support in detail.
The support can be granted for editorial costs or development projects in news affairs as proposed by the working group chaired by Member of Parliament Harry Harkimo.
The appropriation will ensure the diversity of news broadcasting and alternative news sources in television broadcasting that reaches the general public. It will also increase the competitiveness and scope of the news and current affairs on public interest channels and develop operating models for content production.
The scheme will be carried out from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2019.
