Experiences of External Interference Among Finnish Journalists: Prevalence, methods and implications
| 19 févr. 2019
À propos de cet article
Publié en ligne: 19 févr. 2019
Pages: 3 - 21
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0016
Mots clés
© 2019 Ilmari Hiltunen, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Survey sample in comparison (per cent)
Based on the membership statistics from 2015. To determine the age structure, employment type, employing media outlet and position, a limited sample was used omitting members (e.g. technical personnel, etc.) whose professional description was deemed not relevant to the scope of the study. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Gender distribution (Female/Male) | 57/43 | 55/45 | 57/43 |
| Dominant age group | 36–55 years (54%) | 36–55 years (61%) | 36–55 years (55%) |
| Salaried employees | 81 | 82 | 81 |
| Freelancers or entrepreneurs | 15 | 17 | 18 |
| Working for newspapers or magazines | 65 | 69 | 67 |
| Working for broadcasting (including public broadcasting) | 23 | 23 | 32 |
| Position as reporter, special reporter or visual journalist | 68 | 72 | 76 |
| Managerial position (Managing editor, producer, editor-in-chief, etc.) | 28 | 24 | 15 As stated before, some journalists in management positions cannot be accepted as union members, which largely explains their low share in union membership. |
Non-physical forms of external interference (per cent)
| Mediated verbal abuse (e.g. insults, name-calling or other verbal expressions of hate through phone calls, letters, email, online comments, social media and websites) | 15 | 14 | 31 | 39 | 1 |
| Contacting and pressuring the editor, managing editor or owner of a media outlet | 7 | 11 | 36 | 41 | 5 |
| Systematic or unusually large volumes of feedback (e.g. organised feedback campaigns) | 4 | 5 | 16 | 74 | 2 |
| Face-to-face verbal abuse (e.g. insults, name-calling and other verbal expressions of hate) | 3 | 5 | 29 | 63 | 0 |
| Threats of negative occupational consequences (e.g. loss of work or journalistic credibility, hampering of future work) | 3 | 4 | 23 | 68 | 1 |
| Public defamation through spreading false claims, rumours or publishing sensitive private information (also online) | 3 | 2 | 12 | 79 | 4 |
| Threats of negative personal consequences (e.g. loss of reputation, harm to personal life) | 2 | 3 | 15 | 80 | 0 |
| Direct or implicit threats of violence | 1 | 1 | 14 | 83 | 0 |
| Threats to destroy personal or employer property | 0 | 0 | 4 | 94 | 1 |
| Direct or implicit threats of violence or other harmful consequences for your family, loved ones and friends | 0 | 0 | 4 | 95 | 0 |
| Hacking attempts and digital security breaches (e.g. breaking into email, personal files and social media profiles) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 87 | 10 |
External interference with regards to pre-screening of journalistic content (per cent)
| Demands to inspect whole journalism pieces as prerequisites for interviews | 22 | 13 | 24 | 39 | 2 |
| Demands for journalistically unwarranted alterations to (direct or indirect) quotations in the journalism piece after interviews | 20 | 17 | 29 | 31 | 2 |
| Demands for journalistically unwarranted alterations to other parts of journalism pieces after interviews (e.g. headline, lead paragraph, text, images and other visual elements) | 13 | 16 | 33 | 36 | 2 |
| Journalistically unwarranted demands to not publish pieces and interviews | 1 | 4 | 34 | 60 | 1 |
Institutional forms of external interference (per cent)
| Threatening with or issuing a complaint to the Finnish Council for Mass Media with intent to pressure | 3 | 5 | 26 | 65 | 0 |
| Threatening with or commencing legal action | 2 | 4 | 29 | 65 | 0 |
| Threatening with or suing for damages or compensation | 1 | 3 | 21 | 75 | 0 |
Economic forms of external interference (per cent)
| Threats of loss of subscribers or audiences for media outlets | 11 | 9 | 22 | 52 | 6 |
| Threats of loss of advertisements and sponsors or other economic sanctions for media outlets | 4 | 7 | 19 | 62 | 8 |
| Offers of economically valuable benefits or gifts | 2 | 6 | 18 | 73 | 1 |
| Explicit offers of economic benefits in exchange for influence over journalistic content (bribery) | 0 | 0 | 5 | 94 | 0 |
Perceived implications of external interference (per cent)
| I am confident that my editor or employer will support me from external interference. | 46 | 31 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| My media outlet does not hand over control of journalistic decisions to external actors under any circumstances. | 43 | 25 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 7 |
| I am worried about the effects of external interference on the credibility of journalism in Finland. | 26 | 43 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 3 |
| External interference does not affect my journalistic work in any way. | 26 | 30 | 13 | 23 | 4 | 4 |
| The audience has a right to know about all incidents of external interference; therefore, they should always be made public. | 20 | 34 | 16 | 21 | 3 | 6 |
| External interference increases the mental strain of my work. | 15 | 32 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 5 |
| The credibility of my media outlet would decrease if all the concessions made due to external interference were made public. | 15 | 18 | 16 | 21 | 16 | 15 |
| I have consciously developed methods and strategies to ward off external interference. | 10 | 34 | 21 | 12 | 14 | 9 |
| Advertisers and sponsors are able to influence the journalism my media outlet produces. | 9 | 24 | 11 | 24 | 24 | 8 |
| Warding off external interference is part of journalistic professionalism; therefore, incidents of interference should not be made public. | 9 | 31 | 18 | 27 | 7 | 7 |
| The amount of external interference I encounter in my work has increased during the past three years. | 8 | 25 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 9 |
| My managing editor, editor or supervisor gives in to external interference more easily than I do. | 8 | 22 | 15 | 15 | 21 | 18 |
| Politicians are able to influence the journalism my media outlet produces. | 5 | 19 | 9 | 31 | 30 | 6 |
| I prefer not to report about certain topics or present certain viewpoints due to external interference. | 4 | 13 | 11 | 25 | 44 | 3 |
| I have altered or removed something from my journalism pieces as I feared external interference. | 2 | 12 | 9 | 24 | 51 | 3 |
External interference with regards to interview situations and access to information (per cent)
| Demands to see the questions as a prerequisite for interviews | 21 | 14 | 30 | 33 | 3 |
| Unwarranted presence of PR persons during interviews or phone interviews | 10 | 13 | 34 | 41 | 2 |
| Denial or obstruction of access to public information | 10 | 11 | 27 | 46 | 5 |
| Demands to exclude certain topics or questions from interviews | 6 | 12 | 29 | 49 | 3 |
| Withholding of cooperation with certain journalists | 3 | 6 | 20 | 67 | 4 |
Physical forms of external interference (per cent)
| Monitoring and following while conducting journalistic work | 1 | 2 | 14 | 81 | 1 |
| Unwarranted denial of entry or removal while conducting journalistic work | 1 | 2 | 13 | 83 | 1 |
| Disruptions of work (e.g. heckling and disrupting interviews and other journalistic work) | 1 | 1 | 13 | 84 | 0 |
| Minor physical violence (e.g. pushing, shoving, hair pulling, grabbing or spitting) | 0 | 0 | 4 | 96 | 0 |
| Tampering with or breaking working equipment (e.g. cameras, recorders and notebooks) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 96 | 0 |
| Serious physical violence (e.g. attacking, hitting, kicking or throwing objects) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 99 | 0 |
Reactions to external interference (per cent)
| How often have you told your colleagues about incidents of external interference? | 14 | 15 | 42 | 28 | 2 |
| How often have you let interviewees alter their citations without journalistic grounds? | 11 | 12 | 27 | 47 | 3 |
| How often have you told your editor or employer about incidents of external interference? | 10 | 12 | 44 | 32 | 3 |
| How often have you altered journalism pieces in some way due to external interference? | 5 | 7 | 23 | 63 | 2 |
| How often has your editor or employer altered your journalism pieces against your will due to external interference? | 2 | 3 | 17 | 75 | 4 |
| How often have you published accounts of the interference you have encountered (e.g. in journalism pieces)? | 1 | 2 | 16 | 80 | 2 |
| How often has your editor or employer decided not to publish your journalism pieces against your will due to external interference? | 0 | 1 | 7 | 89 | 3 |
| How often have you decided to not publish journalism pieces due to external interference? | 0 | 0 | 11 | 88 | 1 |