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.

For better schools

Profesia, a Slovakian recruitment service company that is part of Alma Media Group, introduced a skills academy for school principals in 2018, focusing on the development of human resource management in schools.

The project is aimed at developing Slovakian schools as work environments and reducing teacher turnover. A total of 22 principals from different regions of Slovakia are participating in the academy pilot.

“There have been problems in the education sector for a long time already, and schools are generally not seen as attractive employers,” says Profesia’s CSR Manager Anna Podlesná, explaining the background of the project.

To provide schools with improved opportunities to find competent teachers to fill vacancies, Profesia also allows schools and other educational institutions to post job adverts free of charge on its website for jobs in the education sector. The number of vacancies advertised by the education sector has nearly tripled as a result.

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.