The budget of Finland’s national public service broadcaster Yle is again under pressure. Because of an unexpectedly low increase in the television licence fee (which all households owning a TV must pay in Finland), Yle is facing a budget shortfall of around 31 million euros. In order to save money, the idea of closing down one or two of the company’s four television channels has been floated. The Finnish-language cultural and educational TV channel Yle Teema and, more notably, the Swedish-language channel FST5 are under threat.
Speaking today, Yle’s managing director Mikael Jungner said he could not guarantee that FST5 would continue as a channel in its own right but did say that Swedish-language programmes would continue to exist in prime time in the future. This seems to point the way backwards to the period pre-2007, when Swedish-language programmes from FST (Finlands Svenska Television) were broadcast in blocks on the two main (Finnish language) Yle channels, TV1 and TV2.
A step backwards hardly seems the right way to go. Finland has only one Swedish language channel, FST5. To lose it thus would be highly disproportionate compared to the loss of one Finnish language TV channel. There is no opportunity for commercial actors to succeed in providing Swedish television programmes produced in Finland. It’s also important to note that FST5 is, in many ways, more equalitarian in its outreach across the language barrier than other channels. FST5 subtitles all of its programmes in Finnish (with the exception of news bulletins), so they are accessible to the non-Swedish speaking Finnish language speakers. Few to no programmes are subtitled in Swedish on Yle’s Finnish-language channels. Indeed, FST’s flagship programmes such as the lifestyle show Strömsö and the talk show Bettina S clearly attract a large Finnish-speaking audience, as shown in ratings and in comments to their websites. One must also wonder how likely it really is that the Finnish-speaking Yle viewer would once again accept huge interruptions into the hours of Finnish-language content for FST to be given time to broadcast – especially now that he or she is now used to uninterrupted Finnish programming on Yle’s flagship channels.
For many Swedish-speaking Finns, especially those with poor or no command of Finnish, FST5 is the only television channel that presents the world from their point of view. If it closes, Sweden’s television channels will only grow in popularity (at least amongst those who can afford to subscribe to them – which brings up another issue, why in the EU free market does one have to pay to see a neighbour country’s “free” TV) and that will mean a large number of Swedish-speaking Finns will be come disconnected with their homeland. FST is particularly important for young children, for it is only on FST that they can watch children’s TV programmes presented in Finland-Swedish, where they will see children’s TV directed at them. Sweden is, after all, a foreign country. I can’t imagine that British parents would be happy if the only children’s TV on offer to their offspring was American.
Yle clearly must save money. It is being forced to by economics. But, the government could and should step in. We have a quite crazy situation in which the TV distribution technology (transmitters etc) was sold off to foreign ownership in the form of Digita. This company now makes a huge profit in effectively overcharging Yle and others for the distribution of their channels. If the distribution function had remained in public hands, it’s likely Yle would not be facing the difficult decision to have to cut costs from its core activity – the programme budget.
Picture: FST5’s news studio, home of the main TV-nytt news bulletins.
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Wednesday 11.11.09 at 23:01
Rasmus
Okay. So, here’s a conspiracy theory for you. The Centre party wants Yle general director Mikael Jungner to leave his job after Yle broadcast a show Matti Vanhanen received bribes in the form of timbers for his house construction. So, Jungner tries to get himself back in with the Centre party by doing what they seem to like best – dismantling Swedish-speaking Finland bit by bit.
Okay, so maybe not. But but…
Thursday 19.11.09 at 17:08
Richard
Nothing new under the sun,
This is all part of the “sophisticated genocide” aimed against Swedes of Finland, or “Swedish-speaking Finns” as Jonas puts it. Finland is currently the only country in EU which tears down administrative structures supporting minority cultures.
These acts illustrate the fact that Finland-Swedes do not have any minority protection, no practical guarantees which support the official bi-lingualism, a very unique arrangement in a bi-lingual society. When the recession hits and the next Center-party dominated goverment takes the charge, who knows, maybe everything related to Swedish in Finland is cut off. Wasn’t minority protection designed to protect minorities from the arbitrary of the majority? Was it the Finland-Swedes who had the best minority status in the world, was it Finland that was a country without corruption…..phew….. I am puzzled as hell.
Thursday 19.11.09 at 19:08
Jonas
Hello Richard, nice to hear from you again.
Personally, I think that the next government is highly unlikely to be led by the Centre party, thankfully. I suspect the next prime minister’s name is Jyrki Katainen. And, promisingly, he today uttered his support for Karleby being orientated southwards to Vasa’s regional administrative district (rather than the farcical insistence of Centre for Uleåborg). In an ideal situation, his party would form a coalition with the SDP. Although, I fear that Centre is likely to remain in government even if not at its helm.
Swedish in Finland is not actually legally a minority language. It is one of our two equal official languages, in law at least. Whether moving to a minority status instead of an arrangement based on the current concept is a matter of current debate. Folktinget, the Swedish assembly of Finland, has in fact just the other week launched an investigation into the pros and cons of a minority protection scenario (instead of the current official language status). I personally suspect that the status quo is better (although with refinements to ensure the goals are better fulfilled). European conventions with protections for linguistic minorities only kick in if the minority is AT LEAST 20% of the population in an area. That would leave many of us in problems (e.g. the largest number of Swedish-speakers in any municipality are in Helsingfors, where they are certainly not 20% these days – more like 6%). Even a traditionally thought of “Swedish” town such as Vasa would only barely make the grade. That is something to bare in mind as we look for future solutions.
Note, that is is not the government directly that would make the decision to close FST5 as an own channel. On this, it’s harder to blame the Centre party – as much as it’s always tempting to do so. Although, of course, the government as a whole has not made Yle’s job any easier through the privatisation of the distribution network and the failure to increase the TV fee sufficiently (populism).
Some argue that it is okay or even better to have FST programmes on TV1 and TV2 again as that encourages also Finnish-speakers to view and enhances the visibility of Finland’s Swedish language culture. They would argue that we make ourselves invisible by placing ourselves on our own channel that Finnish-speakers simply can avoid even tuning into. I personally disagree with this point of view. I think an own channel is essential. FST and the whole of Svenska Yle’s main target population must be Swedish-speaking Finns in the first hand. After that, it is of course excellent and desirable to reach out to other viewers – and FST does an excellent job through subtitling virtually everything in Finnish. But, this job can not and should not be done at the expense of FST’s principal target group. Otherwise, there is little point or purpose in having programming in Swedish that reflects Swedish-speaking Finland. I also think a mixed solution (with FST again on Finnish channels) would mean that very many unilingual Swedish-speakers (or those who almost never watch Finnish language TV, e.g. many in Österbotten and on Åland) would simply abandon FST and only get their programming from Sweden. That would be bad for societal cohesion and would exclude many Swedish-speakers from being informed on what is going on in their own country. This would be an abandonment of Yle’s mission. Until now, it is hard to fault Yle. They have been a very positive upholder of bilingualism in their provision of service. I hope they don’t change and move backwards. That would not be progress.