As a result of widespread adoption of different social media platforms, performance of the media has been under public scrutiny and critique more than perhaps ever before. However, this has not resulted in creation of new more formalised fora for media criticism. Individual activists in the mid-2010s established a few blog-based platforms – Faktabaari and Vastavalkea are perhaps the best known – but they have not gained much significance (see also Indicator F10 – Misinformation and digital platforms).[i] More influence has, instead, been gained perhaps by a couple of politically motivated web-services that drive a xenophobic and racist agenda, such as Magneettimedia and Vastarinta.[ii] The latter appeal especially to the supporters of the right-wing populist party Perussuomalaiset.
Traditionally, the Finnish media has enjoyed a great degree of self-regulatory autonomy. This is especially due to long-standing collaborative relations between the media owners, the editors, and the journalists’ union. This rather unique collaboration is internationally institutionalised in CMM, where not only all the parties are equally represented, but also whose 13 members include 5 representatives of the public (see also Indicators E4 – Minority/Alternative media & F7 – Procedures on news selection and news processing).[iii] Additionally, all CMM members oblige themselves to follow the Guidelines for Journalists(the code of ethics), and CMM represents around 90–95 per cent of the Finnish news media.
CMM’s role in controlling the performance of the media is based on two functions: public complaints from members of audience and a system of sanctions against the misconduct of its member media organisations, and further acting on its own initiative regarding issues that it finds important for the public good and relevant for popular trust in the media. As a self-regulatory body covering most of the news media, CMM is the main media watchdog in Finland. Despite going through some turbulent years in the early 2010s, CMM has been able to progressively consolidate its public trust and reputation.
The other main platforms for media criticism include the Journalisti, a professional monthly journal published by the UJF, and Suomen Lehdistö, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Finnish Newspapers Association. In addition, media criticism is exercised by occasional op-eds in newspapers and journals by renowned journalists and academics, television talk-shows (Yle’s Pressiklubi), radio debating programmes, and so forth. A number of books related to the “control of the controllers” have recently been published (see Herkman, 2011; Horowitz et al., 2019; Karppinen et al., 2015; Nordenstreng & Nieminen, 2017; Seppänen & Väliverronen, 2015).
[i] https://faktabaari.fi/in-english/; https://vastavalkea.fi/
[ii] http://www.magneettimedia.com/; https://www.vastarinta.com/uutiset/
[iii] www.jsn.fi/en
