Being On Top Takes Effort, Worries Abound

Michael Hedges March 19, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Each country has its own unique characteristics. This has made tourism big business, though a bit less over the last couple of years. And, too, we like to know where our own places of habitation stack up with other places. Addicted as we are to rankings and lists, comparisons among countries easily find their way to media reports. Of course, these measures differ; food to nature, opera to dance.

The 2022 World Happiness Report was released this past week (March 18), rating, well, the happiness of people in over 150 countries. In its current form the report has been produced for a decade based on data from the Gallup World Poll, organized by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Finland topped the 2022 report as it has now for five years. There are interesting lessons for media observers.

Sampling recent headlines from major Finnish news media, however, does not show a great deal of happiness. Effects of the invasion of Ukraine by forces of the Russian Federation dominate. Finland has a 1,340 kilometer (830 miles) border with the Russian Federation. Refugees from Ukraine, possible NATO membership, updates to security policies and right-wing political parties distancing themselves from Russia were stories above the fold. So, too, was climate action. There was a leading feature about women’s world record holding hammer thrower Krista Tervo being in a “good spring mood.”

The annual survey from Reuters Institute at Oxford University last year (2021) showed, again, Finns with the highest trust in their news media (65%). Trust in Finnish news media increased by 9% year on year. The observers explained that Finns, generally, have a high trust in institutions. They also have several strong regional newspapers, a beloved public radio and TV broadcaster (YLE) and one whopping huge national daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, owned by Sanoma Oyj. Four out of five Finns surveyed for the 2021 report said they most often access traditional media websites.

The 2021 Media Literacy Index, compiled by the Sofia, Bulgaria based Open Society Institute (OSI) and including 30 European countries, ranked Finland best in the world at combatting disinformation. This, too, was not the first time at the top for Finland. Coinciding with the 2014 annexation of Crimea critical media literacy has been part of public education in Finland spurred by a sharp rise in Russian disinformation campaigns. “After the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, we saw an increased disinformation activity targeted at Finland. For example, attempts to rewrite our history and persecution of journalists and researchers who covered Russia critically,” said then-chief communications specialist for the Finnish prime minister’s office Jussi Toivanen, quoted by UK daily Telegraph (February 16, 2021).

In a slight blemish on Finland’s top rankings, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) 2021 World Press Freedom Index placed the country 2nd in the world, same as the two previous years. The chief worry for the country’s news media, said the accompanying RSF report, are social media platforms siphoning off ad revenues. “Many of their users share false information and conspiracy theories, and attack the traditional media with the aim of discrediting them in the eyes of the general public.”

“Although our ranking is still an excellent, second place, and Finland is among the few countries where press freedom is still well established, the situation in the world is deteriorating,” said Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF) president Hanne Aho to Journalistilitto (April 21, 2021). “We cannot wait for the situation to correct itself, but must act actively and quickly to improve press freedom. Freedom of the press is not a given, even in Finland.”

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