Finland local news media

Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the 12th to the 19th centuries, and under Russia after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist invasions by the Soviet Union--albeit with some loss of territory. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy. Per capita income is now among the highest in Western Europe.

A member of the European Union since 1995, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January 1999. In the 21st century, the key features of Finland's modern welfare state are a high standard of education, equality promotion, and national social security system.

Finland's broadcast media features a mix of publicly-operated and privately-owned TV stations. The two publicly-owned TV stations recently expanded services and the largest private TV station has introduced several special-interest pay-TV channels. Cable and satellite multichannel subscription services are available. All TV signals have been broadcast digitally since September 2007. Public broadcasting maintains a network of 13 national and 25 regional radio stations. Additionally, there are a large number of private radio broadcasters.

Finland has over four million Internet users. There are 31 daily newspapers in Finland, more than in any other Nordic country. Finland ranks third in the world in newspaper consumption--only Japan and Norway have higher levels of newspaper readership.