Eero Hyvönen continues as chairman of JSN for a second term.
Eero Hyvönen has been elected to continue as chairman of the Council of Public Speech (JSN).
JSN’s support association elected Hyvönen for a further term for the years 2024–2028 at its meeting on Tuesday. Hyvönen is a Bachelor of Law. His term as chairman of JSN is his second.
The chairman’s task is to manage JSN by interpreting the Journalist’s instructions and good journalistic practice. He also monitors, for example, the development of media and journalistic ethics, manages the JSN office and manages the council’s finances.
Second the term is Hyvönen’s last, as the same person can serve as JSN’s chairman for a maximum of two consecutive terms.
In an interview with Journalisti magazine Hyvönen says that he is satisfied with his choice.
“We are in the process of reforming the Journalist’s instructions, and next year we will be able to put it into practice,” Hyvönen tells the newspaper.
In the interview, it is also said that the number of complaints received by JSN this year exceeds its record. Anyone can make a complaint to JSN about, for example, a material error in a magazine story.
This year there will be more than 500 complaints, Hyvönen estimates. The previous record was from 2016, when there were 468 complaints.
Complaints the number has increased for the last four years in a row, Hyvönen tells HS. What is this due to?
A good one according to the number of complaints often increases slightly when JSN gets a new chairman. In recent years, however, complaints have been accelerated by various controversial topics: the pandemic, climate change and minorities.
“Media is the arena of political struggle, and sometimes that struggle continues in JSN. Political struggle is allowed, it is a normal democratic activity”, states Hyvönen.
“People are increasingly aware of the media. Expectations are high, and journalism is expected to be truthful. Many are accurate about the facts, even if the topic does not particularly affect them personally.”
New types of minorities also emerge in the complaints, which challenge the prevailing ways of dealing with them in the media. According to Hyvönen, there are no statistics on the age or gender of the complainants, so it is not possible to directly say who complains about which topics.
“Based on the names, it seems quite diverse, but in certain topics there are more, for example, young people or women involved,” he says.
in JSN working preparers handle all complaints. They prepare presentations on the complaints and the chairman decides whether the complaint will proceed to be resolved by the actual council. The Council makes a decision to either acquit or close the complaint. Decisions with reasons are published.
Four fifths of the complaints do not progress to the council, says Hyvönen. Every complainant receives a decision on the matter with reasons. Three full-time preparers work at JSN.
When handling complaints, they look at, among other things, what kind of decisions have been made on similar cases in the past, or whether the complaint is new. If the complaint is more about a disagreement and a difference in interpretation than an essential factual error, it will hardly progress to the council.
“Sometimes the preparers turn to experts in their work,” adds Hyvönen.
Correction 5.9. 3:31 p.m.: JSN’s chairman decides whether the complaint will proceed to the council, and not the draftsman, as the story erroneously read earlier.
Correction 5.9. 19:27: Removed mention of Hyvönen’s second four-year term. The duration of the season is currently five years.
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