Promoting democracy, pluralism and vitality in society

Contributor to a sustainable society

Alma Media’s media brands are committed to defending freedom of speech and a pluralistic and democratic society. They engage in ethical, objective and transparent journalism and help citizens improve their media skills.

Other Alma Media services also strive to enhance the vitality of their communities and support the balanced development of society, often in cooperation with other organisations, educational institutes or other companies.

While the methods vary, the goal is the same: providing people with tools for sustainable growth in both professional and private life.

Facts, please!

In the run-up to the 2018 presidential elections, Alma Media’s editorial offices established a joint fact checking team to evaluate the truthfulness of claims made by the candidates.

The aim of the project was to provide readers with reliable information on the election campaign and candidates, fight the spread of fake media and disinformation as well as give readers the opportunity to participate in fact checking.

The project ended with the presidential elections held in January. The fact checking team produced a total of 14 stories regarding the claims they evaluated. Of the claims, two were based on
facts and five were based on falsehoods. In the other seven claims, the facts were sort of correct but not entirely accurate. The fact checking team also live blogged two election debates to provide readers with links, studies and expert comments related to the candidates’ claims.

The project that took place during the run-up to the 2018 presidential elections was the first fact checking project to bring together Alma Media’s editorial offices across the boundaries between publications to this extent. The same approach will be employed in the future in various contexts.

An opposing force to fake news and hate speech

Responsible media companies must internalise how they can best support democracy and open dialogue between citizens.

One way to achieve this is to develop the ways editorial teams work and to open up this information to public scrutiny. Alma Media’s editorial teams have set quality goals for the content they publish. The key indicators used in monitoring their achievement include the number of condemnatory decisions by the Council for Mass Media as well as the results of reader surveys.

If the results decline, the editorial teams take action to respond.

Alma Media’s editorial offices also cooperate with schools in many ways. One of the focuses of this cooperation is media education. We consider it important for schools to produce children who have the capacity to act sensibly both as consumers and producers of content.

Interesting but not irresponsible

Headlines can be bold but they must not upset or insult anyone. Facts must be checked and false rumours exposed, states Iltalehti’s Editor-in-Chief Erja Yläjärvi.