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On 26 November 2018, the EU Commission initiated proceedings for infringement of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union against 17 member states for non-compliance with the Directive requiring the transposition into national law of the Marrakesh Treaty (Directive (EU) 2017/1564) (see IRIS 2017-9/4 and IRIS 2016-9/4). The Marrakesh Treaty is a WIPO-administered convention that was signed on 27 June 2013 and entered into force on 30 September 2016, after the first 20 ratifications. The Treaty facilitates access to print works in formats adapted for persons who are blind, visually...

In July 2018, the Finnish Government adopted a resolution on the Media Policy Programme. The resolution includes objectives and measures extending all the way to 2023, while engaging various ministries across a number of sectors. All in all, 23 action points for seven different topics are envisioned. The starting point for the resolution dates back to 2017 when the goverment decided to begin the preparation of a Media Policy Programme as part of its key project on digital business. The programme was prepared in cooperation with stakeholders, while a report (LVM 4/2018) on the current state of media...

On 12 January 2018, amendments to the Information Society Code (see IRIS 2015-3/11) were enacted which enter into force on 1 June 2018. Firstly, the Code will be renamed the Act on Electronic Communications Services (ECSA). Secondly, among the core amendments, the provisions on the issuance of programme licences will include new conditions for granting and withdrawing such licences. Alongside previous conditions, the Finnish Communication Regulatory Authority (FICORA) must grant the licence should there not be a manifest reason to suspect that the applicant will violate Section 6 on age limits,...

Finland supports public-interest television news programs. The supplementary State budget for 2017 had a separate EUR 1 million allocated for the purpose, whereas the budget for next year contains double that amount. The support aims at safeguarding pluralism in news production and securing alternative news sources in linear TV as well as boosting the competitiveness of news and current affairs activity. The state aid covers both the costs of carrying out regular activity and project costs, with criteria and conditions laid down in a new Government Decree on supporting news and current affairs...

Following the Chamber judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) two years ago (see IRIS 2015-8/1), the Grand Chamber has also come to the conclusion that the right to freedom of expression and information was not violated in Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy v. Finland. By fifteen votes to two the Grand Chamber found that a prohibition issued by the Finnish Data Protection Board that had prevented two media companies from publishing personal taxation data in the manner and to the extent that they had published these data before was to be considered as a legal, legitimate...