HELSINKI, June 10, 2020 - Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka is proposing EUR 5 million to support journalistic work and EUR 2.5 million to support news agencies in the state's supplementary budget. The purpose of the aid is to help the media affected by the COVID-19 crisis and to ensure communication.

The pandemic has drastically reduced media advertising revenues, which is the second cornerstone of journalism funding alongside subscription fees. More than half of the media houses have laid off their staff. At worst, the industry is threatened with redundancies and bankruptcies.

The other Nordic countries have already increased their media support by EUR 24-64 million due to the corona pandemic. Under normal circumstances, journalism is also supported in the other Nordic countries with EUR 50–80 million annually. In Finland, the support for minority language news media this year is 0.5 million and the support for cultural magazines is 0.8 million euros. At the same time, media taxation is clearly higher than in the other Nordic countries.

The pandemic has hit freelancers where it hurts, in their wallets and work. The Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF) survey conducted over April-May has revealed that as a result of the pandemic income has decreased ‘a lot’ for 43 per cent of respondents and ‘somewhat’ for 24 per cent. For two-thirds of respondents the amount of work they get has decreased: ‘a lot’ in the case of 39 per cent and ‘somewhat’ for 27 per cent.

Since the beginning of June, athletes have been able to measure the results of their training against other. The sports competitions received the expected permission from the regional government agencies (Avit), and in addition to the individual sports, the ball series will gain momentum. So far, sporting events may have a maximum of 500 people at special events. They, too, must be guaranteed safety distances and hand hygiene to protect themselves against the coronavirus.