Yleisradio’s board chairman Matti Apunen considers it dangerous if the government is wanted to be more directly under the political control of the supervisory board than at present.
Yleisradio Chairman of the Board Matti Apunen says that there is nothing exceptional in his contacts with the MPs of fundamental Finns and the center.
Iltalehti reported on the weekendthat Apunen has contacted MPs who are members of Yleisradio’s supervisory board and have proposed cuts to Yle’s funding.
The matter is related to the parliamentary working group whose task is to evaluate Yleisradio’s mission and funding. It is scheduled to issue its report by the end of the spring session of the parliament.
The Administrative Council is Yleisradio’s highest decision-making body, whose voting members are MPs. Yleisradio’s board, on the other hand, is lower in the hierarchy, but operates independently.
According to IL Apunen, who is the chairman of the board, would have approached the MP Joakim Vigelius (ps) in the fall of 2023 when members of the supervisory board are visiting Yleisradio. At that time Apunen had criticized according to Vigelius the size of the funding cuts presented by basic Finns.
Vigelius also raised the issue In the X instant messaging service on Saturday. He referred to Apuse having “pressured” politicians.
“I’m glad that Yle’s board of directors pj Apusen’s attempt to put pressure on Yle’s critical decision-makers has come to the fore. – – In our conversation that lasted for a while, Apusen’s approach showed no conciliation at all, but a strong criticism and questioning of the Yle criticism presented by ps”, commented Vigelius.
Also a Member of Parliament Pekka Aittakumpu (middle) said that Apusen had called him after he had presented the reduction of Yle’s funding in the X message service. Aittakumpu made his comments the Minister of Finance Riikka Purran (ps) in connection with statements criticizing the media.
Matti Apusen according to him, his contact with politicians is quite normal.
“First of all, it is the duty of the chairman of Yleisradio’s board and the members of the supervisory board to have this discussion. My task is to make sure that the members of the supervisory board have good and sufficient information to support decision-making,” he says to HS.
“I talk to dozens, hundreds of people a year, and there are many kinds of politicians. And of course I talk to the members of the supervisory board.”
“For example, in this case of Vigelius, I wanted to know how they arrived at the amount by which they demanded that Yleisradio’s budget be cut, i.e. 140 million euros.”
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“I wanted to make sure that they know what the consequences are if such an operation is done quickly and once and for all.”
Yleisradio funding in the 2023 budget was around 576 million euros, after taxes around 523 million euros. In accordance with the recording of the board program the parliamentary working group examines Yleisradio’s tasks and funding.
The largest governing parties are the Kokoumus and the Basic Finns presented already in autumn 2022 as opposition parties, that Yle’s funding should be cut by 120–140 million euros.
“I wanted to make sure that they knew what the consequences would be if such an operation were done quickly and once and for all”, says Apunen about his contacts.
He is also concerned that cut demands are justified on the basis of some individual programs, such as in the conversation between Minister of Finance Purra and MP Aittakummu on the X message service.
Also the Speaker of the Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (ps) accused in January Yleisradio is “very strongly ideologically inclined to the left”.
Matti Apunen considers it dangerous if one wants the government to be under the political control of the supervisory board more directly than at present.
He points out that Yleisradio operates under the authority of the entire parliament, not just the parties in government at any given time.
“I would hope that the discussion would be conducted on the basis that if Yleisradio’s budget is to be cut, there is an underlying concern for the balance of the state finances. That this is first and foremost a fiscal issue, and not something else.”
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