Finnish journalism is in an alarming state, with political parties showing little interest in providing media aimed at their members, Rikka Suominen, the editor-in-chief of Green League s newspaper said. Finland s Green League, who won the second highest number of votes in the elections, has decided to pull its backing for the "Green Thread" newspaper.

Green Thread (Vihreää Lankaa) s editor-in-chief was shocked to discover their primary funder, Finland s Green League (Vihreä liitto) had announced on Saturday that it would no longer finance the newspaper designed for members.

The Finnish green party has published the free magazine with a circulation of 10,000 since 1983. At that time, such a service was not voluntary for political parties. Until 2008, a law required them to spend a certain percentage of their state funding according to the size of their representation in parliament on party media. In 2008, the Parliament decided to terminate this requirement, enabling parties to spend the amount on other things, without limitation.

„At present, parties are free to choose what to spend state funding on. However, it s a disgrace to democracy that they don t find party media important,” Green Thread s editor-in-chief Riikka Suominen said after Green League s announcement. She added that this case pointed out how alarming the state of journalism has become in recent years.

Green League spent 450,000 euros annually on the paper, and „the lack of that sum practically means the end of the magazine” Suominen says. She also revealed that Green Thread would be published until December and is likely to be terminated then.

Regarding the decision, Green League Vice-Chair Veli Liikanen said that the party is considering new forms of communication.

„More and more people are interested in politics and public life in Finland. We want to serve them with a wider media presence and better new opportunities,” said Liikanen in a signed statement. However, the statement did not reveal how the Green League intended to spend the money saved by refusing to finance the Green Thread.