Viikkosanomat, September 03, 1984

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PERTTI HEMANUS FINLAND
n Western bourgeois mass media research
one of the basic concepts of freedom of
speech is normally understood as
something a medium either has or has not
It may be threatened or more or less
restricted by the state or big business - even
if the latter in general is forgotten in this
context But one of the crucial questions --
who "controls" freedom of speech within
the medium internally is neglected in most
cases in bourgeois media research My
theoretical considerations and empirical
results certainly concern conditions in
Finland only - but it is probable that some
general traits are more or less common for
other Scandinavian countries and other
Western countries too
From legislation to journalistic culture
The legislation restricts internoi freedom of
the press in an essentia! way and it does so
at the vety moment il guarantees very much
freedom for the owners of the medium In
the press the owner appoints the editor-in-chi- ef
and the latter in turn has the power
to determine the contents of the paper: he
can reject or accept manuscripts ele In
ihis indirect way the owners ejfectively
regulate the contents The system in
broadcasting does not structurally deviate
very much from that of the press In radio
and television the so-call- ed channel
directors have in principle the same power
as the chiefeditors in the press
On the other hand the legislation also
has something positive to give journalists
Concerning journalistic products which
have an autonomous character - in other
words excluding routine pieces of news - a
Journalisi has both the "fatherhood" right
and the "respect" right This means firstly
that he has the right to be acknowledged as
the creator of the product and secondly
that in the editing process it is forbidden for
the foreman to change the product of a
journalist in a way that violates its original
content and form its original idea The
journalisti copyright is in principle the
same as that ofthe creative artist
One of the objectives of the labour unions
of journalists is to increase internoi
freedom of the press In agreements on
wages and conditions of employment there
are several paragraphs concerning this very
aspect ofa journalisti rights
One of these paragraphs guarantees the
journalist not to have to write or promote
programs in conflict with his personoi
convictions This is an important right but
not at ali the same as one which would
enable him to write or promote programs
which correspond to his convictions Such a
right would be incompatible with that of the
editor-in-chief- or the broadcasting director
described above The other relevant
paragraph gives the journalist the right to
refuse to carry out tasks which conflict wilh
good journalistic or professional ethics
It is self evident that agreements on
wages and conditions of employment are
compromises But employers have
considered it important enough to include a
paragraph stating thai the journalist is to
follow the line of the nempaper or
magazine as formulated by the owners In
principle a similar rule applies to Finnish
radio and television - both state and
Commercial
These factors ajfect the internoi freedom
of the press But ali the forces influencing
this situation are different from juridical
norms or agreements between employers
and labour unions ofjournalists In a short
mapping of these forces perhaps the most
central factor is called journalistic culture
This covers manifest or latent values
norms rules routines etc regulating
journalistic work and a journalisti ways of
thinking
Complicated character ofjournalistic
freedom
Journalistic freedom is not a dichotomy
meaning either there is that freedom or
there is not In this type of freedom we
differentiate between two sides: the
objective one is something which really
exists and the subjective one is a
journalisti experience or interpretation on
a consciousness level
In general Finnish journalists
interviewed for my study were on the
average a bit more pleased with their
12
journalistic freedom than was expected
This phenomenon can probably be
explained by the concept of a "happiness
wall" used ' by some sociologists
(interviewed people incline to emphasize the
positive sides of their life situation
especially at the beginning of an interview)
One possible explanation for this
phenomenon is offered by the character of
journalistic work It is a specific category
of intellectual salaried work not
comparable to other types of salaried work
In practice this means among other things
that many journalists like their profession
and their daily tasks - even if their
journalistic freedom is restricted It is also
worth mentioning that journalism for a
longer time has been among the most
popular careers which young people dream
of and strive for On the other hand
alienation naturally concerns journalists
too Some of those interviewed spoke very
openly about their frustrations and
disappointments due to restraints on their
freedom Salaried work in principle is
always alienated work this means you do
not work "for yourse(f" in order to fu(fil
your personoi needs Of course journalists
carry "character masks" too - to use Karl
Marx's excellent characterization
although their masks are a bit different
from those ofcerlain other professional and
occupational groups
The interviewed reporters and other
journalists not in leading positions see the
state of affairs concerning journalistic
freedom in a different way from that of
editors-in-chi- ef and broadcasting directors
We can quite easily interpret the difference
with the well-know- n thesis according to
which "social being determines
consciousness" In other words the
"bosses" do not normally deny that the
freedom of journalists at their editorial
ojfices is restricted but they do not see the
importance of this situation looming very
large political colour apparently does not
ajfect very much their way of commenting
on the freedom of "their" journalists It is
the position which is decisive
There are problems connected with the
recruitment of journalists It is natural
that party organs demand a certain loyalty
from their journalists but in practice non-ajfiliat- ed
Commercial papers and the
broadcasting companies also adopt
political or ideological criteria in the
recruitment of their journalists The crucial
matter for newspaper owners is to find
journalists willing to Jolio w the line of their
paper irrespective of how they personally
think This means that it is not very difficult
to find a job as a journalist (especially in
Finland where nowadays we even have a
lack of good journalists) but it is much
more difficult to realize one's own ideology
in this profession
The paragraphs in the agreement on
wages and conditions of employment
mentioned above do not very much increase
journalistic freedom in practice The
newspaper owners determine the line of
their media both in theory and practice --
this hardfact is more important than these
paragraphs Quite a few interviewed
journalists have used their right to refuse
to carry out certain kinds of tasks But to
be honest journalists are not even clearly
aware of such possibilities It is surely
possible to lend my empirical results an
interpretation that labour unions have not
succeeded in their attempts to increase
freedom collectively Logically some
journalists may think that the most effective
alternative is to act individually this means
to try to develop into a journalistic star who
naturally has a greater freedom than the
average colleague But it is important to see
that even the biggest star in his editorial
office uses only a delegated power which
the employer can lake back from him in
principle any day
Did he have something to say?
Chiefs in editorial offices have two legal
possibilities: to publish an article or
publicize a program with minor
alterations or not at ali Some of those
inierviewed have their own Interpretation of
the situation: they admit that conflicts on
editing sometimes arise but these are due
to the present journalists' "oversensitive
attitudes" - which according to this
interpretation means that journalists often
refuse to make any change whatsoever in
their manuscripts or programs
Employers naturally strive to minimize
conflicts in editorial offices They do not
succeed very well in the sense that the
possibilities of conflicts are built Into the
whole journalistic system and it is an
absolutely unrealistic idea to think of
eliminating ali ofthem On the other hand
acute conflicts are quite rare This is
understandable: an editorial office with
continuous conflicts would work badly
indeed Reporters or other journalists not
in leading positions are not automatically
intent on instigating conflicts Even
professional principles and codes play some
role In this respect the international
principles of professional ethics in
journalism are of great significance (See
The DJ 284 - Documentary Supplement
and 10J Newsletter 384)
Facfors threatening journalistic freedom
in concrete situations are often
combinations of external and internoi
forces In other words an editor-in-chief- or
broadcasting director is pressured by
somebody outside the editorial office - let us
say an agent of big business or a politician --
and he is the intermediary of this pressure
on the journalist It is easy to play a
manipulative game in such a situation: the
journalist will probably never know the
original source of pressure Reporters and
other journalists think in a way described
in the classic theory of professionalism -t-hey
"respect bosses who protect themfrom
outside pressure"
A big share of the restrictions on
journalistic freedom can be explained by
conscious se{f-censorsh-ip Quite a few
interviewed journalists openly talked about
cases in which they gave up writing about
certain types of events processes and
problems did not interview certain
"unsuitable" people etc There are other
types of self-censorship-: someone may write
about a theme but only from a certain
restricted or evenbiasedpoint ofview not
corresponding to the idea of objectivity We
can also find examples of journalists who
afterwards say that their own self-censorsh-ip
in a certain concrete situation
was overexaggerated they probably could
have written about a certain topic or spoken
about it differently than they actually did
This last point is not an empirical result
but a commentary I present it by citing a
Finnish poet Lauri Viita: "Had he really
spoken seven languages? Weil did he also
have something to say?" Journalists have
to demand much of themselves They have
to show in practice that they are better
professionals than newspaper owners and
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their representatives in editorial offices
Freedom means responsibility too and
larger freedom correspondingly means
larger responsibility
Pertti Hemänus is Professor of JoumaJism
and Mass Communication at the
University of Tampere Finland This
article is based on his book "Journalistinen
vapaus" (Freedom of Journalism) issued in
Finnish in 1983
Uptate on
Liitto History
Even though it is vacation
time and ali of us are or have
been away at cottages camp-ing
- out of tovvn or whatever
the wheels are slowly turning
despite (or in some instances)
because of that and progress is
being made It was decided not
to have any meetings in mid --
summer so just to remind every
one the next meeting is
scheduled for Sat Sept 15th at
Elvi Duncan's as usual at 1 pm
We gave a tentative date of
Aug 15th for ali material to be
in but it is not too late to turn in
your contribution
We have received trans-latio- ns
fron Eini Kaarela
Gertie Grönroos & Gulliver --
multi-thanks on behalf of the
committee
I am thanking you thus to
save time and postage Re-gardi- ng
that article on "Ennä-tyshiihtäjä- t"
I thought it was
full of some provincial idiom
but Uuno Korpi tells me it's
vritten in some old time idiom
in the style of Kalevala It's
beyond me too so I'll leave it
for further discussion See you
ali at the next meeting
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