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.

One euro

Alma Media’s Czech-based recruitment company LMC provides its recruitment services to NGOs for a nominal fee of one euro, which sees the company reach out to the third sector in a gesture worth millions of euros per year.

The project began in the late 2000s when LMC recognised the growth of NGOs was hindered by their inability to systematically utilise professional and modern recruitment services due to their high cost.

The number of NGOs that use LMC’s services in their recruitment activities has grown each year since the start of the project. The computational
value of this initiative was approximately EUR 4.1 million in 2017, with more
than 4,000 permanent jobs filled.

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.