Minna Suihkonen

YLE; the Finnish Broadcasting Company, has quite a challenge to make immigrants stay tuned, instead of satellite channels, says Elina Paloheimo.

Supporting integration by means of TV programmes is difficult because it isn´t easy to make immigrants follow the Finnish media, Elina Paloheimo of YLE points out. She is the responsible producer of the multicultural programmes of Basaari and Mundo and the instructor of the related Mundo media training programmes.

– Immigrants tend to watch broadcasts from their native countries through dish antennas. The danger is that they don´t become aware of the events, laws and social life in the country where they live.

How would immigrants be made to watch Finnish TV channels then?

– I wish I knew the answer. The same question is asked across Europe, Paloheimo sighs.

They have discovered on the Dutch television that once the leading role of an entertainment programme is played by a person of their own ethnic group, the immigrant viewers´ interest is aroused.

– We should make such appealing entertainment which immigrants could identify with and Finns would also watch, Paloheimo ponders.

What´ s more, Finland needs scriptwriters with an immigrant background. Unfortunately we have no writer like Peter Birro, who is a Swede with an Italian background, Paloheimo frets. In Sweden Birro´s pen has created high-quality and daring television series, including Hammarkullen and Det nya landet. In the Finnish Broadcasting Company such an opening was a drama called Poikkeustila, which was located in a reception centre and broadcast on Channel 1 last spring. However, it was written by Finnish scriptwriters.

Sketch entertainment is a difficult field

According to Paloheimo, multicultural entertainment is worth making in the future too despite the fact that sketch entertainment has proved to be a demanding field hankala. Last summer Ähläm Sähläm puzzled the viewers and this summer YLE received a torrent of critical feedback on the comedy serial Manne-tv. Romanifoorumi, the umbrella organisation of the Finnish Romani associations, made demands on its immediate close-down. As the consequence of severe criticism and a public poll, Channel 1 decided to change its name into correct Romano-tv, but the content remained unchanged.

Paloheimo reveals that as far as Manne-tv is concerned, it was in the programme Basaari, that the series was created in the first place. Originally, a one-part Manne-tv was first shown in Basaari after which the entertainment programmes purchased it and made it into a serial.

Paloheimo understands the critics, but also defends the serial.

– The programme starts off on a slightly similar programme as Goodness Gracious Me on BBC where an Indian community living in Britain makes fun of themselves in a very similar spirit as the Romanis in Manne-tv. Moreover, the programme has mainly been composed and performed by Romanis.

In Paloheimo´s view the debate aroused by Manne-tv will prove to be good in the end.

The most important opening in her career

Elina Paloheimo considers Basaari her most important opening in her whole career in the company. She got the idea in the early 1990s when she participated in a working team to start multicultural co-productions, in connection with the European Broadcasting Union.

– I used to follow projects going on in other countries and my social conscience was beginning to arise because Finland had just received a number of refugees from Somalia.

When Paloheimo was appointed as the head of cultural programmes in 1994, they reached a decision on launching a multicultural programme. Basaari became a regular broadcast three years later. Nowadays it´s part of the YLE factual programmes productions. From the very beginning producer Seppo Seppälä has been the other key figure and content developer of the programme.

– Naturally, Basaari isn´t enough to cover the whole multicultural field in the company, Paloheimo says. She is going to retire in a year.

Television has a great responsibility

Paloheimo feels pleased with the commitment of YLE to bring forward minorities in programmes both as performers and makers, in prime time too.

– The message has gone through, but it´ll take time before it materialises and is seen in the programmes.

Those engaged in Basaari have been in touch with many other broadcasting companies in the EU countries.

– We´ve learnt from Holland, England and Sweden, for instance. We´ve got ideas, working methods and information. Finland isn´t an island where we could invent everything ourselves.

The issue of how the media should bring forward diversity is in the public eye all over Europe, she says.

– Everybody feels concerned about handling this matter to prevent terrible things from happening. The riots in France intimidate people.

In Paloheimo´s opinion the media has a great responsibility for supporting the immigrants´ integration. The Finnish Broadcasting Company is a natural leader.

Television has the greatest influence on people´s images of what Finland looks like and who we are.

The Swedish television closed down a superpopular programme Mosaik, an equivalent to Basaari, and obliged all those working on it to take responsibility for making multiculturalism visible. Their aim was to prevent the immigrants from being secluded in their own theme programme. When will it be the right time for Basaari?

– No programme is eternal, but I hope a more extensive spectre of responsibility would first develop in other programmes, Paloheimo ponders.

– Many TV journalists who have made Basaari for years feel they have become its prisoners, she relates.

What they find insulting is that the other editorial offices don´t trust them, even though they have become professionals by working on such projects as Basaari and Mundo. However, the guardians of various programme slots have recently started warming up for their skills. In Tosi tarina and Dokumenttiprojekti, for instance, we can see the work of those engaged in Basaari.

Recruiting is a challenge

In the next few years YLE´s challenge is to create a recruiting policy to employ immigrants in permanent jobs in the company, Elina Paloheimo puts in.

– They have expressed a wish in YLE to pay attention to multiculturalism in recruiting staff, but no actual guidelines have been composed yet. Currently, the possibility of apprenticeship training is considered.

In television work, Paloheimo thinks that perfect language skills shouldn´t be required in programmes where the journalists don´t show up themselves. Cameramen, sound recorders and directors don´t need a Finnish knowledge equalling to that of a native Finnish speaker.

– Instead, news production is very demanding. That´s why they may have more requirements regarding language skills.

Viewers may be surprisingly intolerant, in terms of the spoken language. Even a Finnish-Swedish accent may irritate them, Paloheimo says.

– It´s another challenge for YLE, in other words, to train viewers to become more tolerant and break ground for new Finns in the media.

What would the TV veteran´s dream YLE be like?

– A company advocating equality and equivalence and making diverse cultures visible. The company would employ talented people who aren´t driven by their own ambition, but also by their willingness to combat for human rights and human dignity, Paloheimo thinks.