Film, video and photography
Legislation pertains mainly to the production of feature and documentary films, to television and radio activities and the censorship of films and videos (and, currently also to computer and console games).
Support for national production of feature films is channelled via the Finnish Film Foundation. The Act and the Decree on Film Production (2000, 2007) defines the organisation, structure and functions of financial support channelled via the Foundation to Finnish cinema. Besides the main function, this support embraces also distribution and various forms of export, international co-productions, promotion and PR-activities.
Acts on Radio and Television, on the Finnish Broadcasting Company and on the State Television and Radio Fund are all important not only for audiences but also business to business, that is, from the point of view of that television is one “market place” among others for national feature film and independent television programme producers.
The Finnish censorship system for films, videos and games is considered both flexible and effective in its present form.
Table 12: Legislation on film, radio, television
LEGISLATION | COMMENTS |
---|---|
Film Art Promotion Act (28/2000) | This Act was needed to provide a legal basis for the functioning of the Finnish Film Institute |
Decree on the Promotion of Film Art (843/2007)) | Specifies the previous Act |
Act on Radio and Television Activities (744/1998, amendments 490/2002, 394/2003, 1190/2005) | Defines the prerequisites for the broadcasting operations and their licensing by public authorities |
Act on the Finnish Broadcasting Company (FBC, 1380/1993, amended 746/1998) | Defines the role of the FBC as a public service radio and television company and defines the mode of its (parliamentary) control |
Act on the State Television and Radio Fund (745/1998) | Defines the organising of the collection and the mode of use of radio and television licence fees |
Act on Audiovisual Programmes (710/2011) and the Act on the Finnish Centre for Media Education and Audiovisual Programmes (711/2011). | These acts repeal the former acts on age classification of programmes for the protection of children against exhibition of pornography and violence; and establish a centre for media education and audiovisual media which started to operate in 2012. |
Act on National Audiovisual Archive 1434/2007 expands the tasks of the earlier Finnish Film Archive by including radio and television programmes in the archival material. | Organises the national administration of archiving films, television and radio programmes |
Act on preserving and archiving cultural material 1433/2007 | Specifies the division of labour between different preservation and archiving organisations and the scope of their preserving tasks. |
Source: Databank FINLEX http://www.finlex.fi/en/
Mass media
TV programme quotas are set out in the 1998 Act on Radio and Television Activities and adhere to the stipulations of the EU Directive “Television Without Frontiers”. The Finnish legislation follows Articles 4.1 of the Directive that presupposes the transmission of European programmes on TV-channels for “…a majority proportion of their transmission time, excluding the time appointed to news, sports events, games, advertising and teletext services“. Following the stipulations of Article 5 of the Directive, the Finnish Act on Radio and Television Activities sets a quota of 15% for programmes by independent producers, with a clause that these programmes must have been produced during the last five years.
The Finnish Film Foundation, which is the main public agency responsible for the support of cinema, had previously no legislative basis in public law; its founding was based on the Foundation Act (109/1938) that stipulates the founding, organisation and administration of both public and private foundations. In the re-codification of the Finnish Constitution (1999) special attention was paid to the importance of not delegating public powers to private organisations without affirmation by an enacted law. This led to the need to prepare and pass the Film Art Promotion Act in 2000, which legitimised the position of the Film Foundation. Basically, the Act has not altered the modus operandi of the Film Foundation.
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