Kansan Uutiset (Finnish: "People's News") is a Finnish language weekly newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. It is the party organ of the Left Alliance.[1][2]

Kansan Uutiset
Kansan Uutiset reports the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
TypeWeekly newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Yrjö Sirola Foundation, trade unions
PublisherKansan Uutiset Oy
EditorSirpa Puhakka
Founded1957; 67 years ago (1957)
Political alignmentLeft Alliance
LanguageFinnish
HeadquartersHelsinki
ISSN0357-1521
Websitewww.kansanuutiset.fi

History and profile

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Kansan Uutiset was founded in 1957[1] as the joint organ of Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL),[3] both of which, until then, had had their own papers, Työkansan Sanomat (SKP) and Vapaa Sana (SKDL). During the 1970s and in the first half of the 1980s Kansan Uutiset represented the moderates in these groups whereas Tiedonantaja was the organ of the doctrinaire faction.[4]

Kansan Uutiset served the parties until their dissolution in 1990. The paper had close ties to the new Left Alliance, which was founded in 1990, but it did not declare itself the organ until 2000. In the 1990s Kansan Uutiset called itself an "independent left paper".[5][6]

Kansan Uutiset has its headquarters in Helsinki.[3][7] Until 1990 the paper was owned by the organisations publishing it. SKP and SKDL also directed the paper through its council and board. New arrangements were made after the parties were gone. A joint stock company was founded, and the new owners were, for example, left-wing trade unions, banks and foundations. The Left Alliance did not directly own any stocks.[5] Nowadays, Yrjö Sirola Foundation has majority of the stocks.[8]

In 2007, the editor-in-chief Janne Mäkinen was convicted of an editorial misdemeanor (Finnish: päätoimittajarikkomus), after the newspaper published an opinion piece about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict claiming that the Holocaust was an "acceptable and desirable measure".[9]

The paper was published four days a week until September 2009, when it became a weekly. The KU website, however, is updated every day.

The circulation of Kansan Uutiset was 43,800 copies in 1974.[3] The paper sold 9,749 copies in 2002.[1]

Editors

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d The Europa World Year Book 2003. London; New York: Europa Publications. 2003. p. 1613. ISBN 978-1-85743-227-5.
  2. ^ Jyrki Jyrkiäinen (2009). "Newspaper Chains in Finland 1993–2010". Journal of Media Business Studies. 9 (2): 7–25. doi:10.1080/16522354.2012.11073541. S2CID 167749530.
  3. ^ a b c "Kansan Uutiset". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. 1979.
  4. ^ Eric Solsten; Sandra W. Meditz, eds. (1988). "The Communist Party". Finland: A Country Study. Washington, DC: GPO for the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1490435749.
  5. ^ a b Yrjö Rautio. (2007). Sitoutumattomaksi ja jälleen puoluelehdeksi. in Veli-Pekka Leppänen (ed.): Etusivu uusiks! Kansan Uutisten viisi vuosikymmentä (Kansan Uutiset), pp. 224–227.
  6. ^ Raimo Salokangas. "From Political to National, Regional and Local" (PDF). Cirebon. Archived from the original (Book chapter) on 14 December 2014.
  7. ^ Jyrki Jyrkiäinen. "Media Landscapes. Finland". Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  8. ^ Juha-Pekka Tikka. (15 July 2008). Martti Korhonen "haiskahtaa esteelliseltä" saamalleen vaalirahoitukselle Ilta-Sanomat
  9. ^ "Lehdille tuomio kiihottamisesta kansanryhmää vastaan". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 8 January 2007. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
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