About 10 percent of Finnish Parliamentarians maintain blogs

Centre Party's Tapani Tölli most diligent blogger MP; Foreign Minister Tuomioja's blog often quoted in media

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By Raija Kaikkonen
     
      Finnish Parliamentarians are increasingly adopting digital communications, but the transition is slow. Only about 20 of Finland's 200 Members of Parliament maintain weblogs on their home pages. Some add to their blogs more regularly than others.
      The most proficient Parliamentary blogger is Tapani Tölli (Centre) from Tyrnävä. He writes almost every day, easily beating out his fellow party member, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
     
The popularity of political blogs grew during the recent presidential election campaign. Since then, there has been less writing, and only Vanhanen was inspired to continue, as he was urged to do during the campaign.
      Proportionally, the party with the greatest number of bloggers is the Swedish People's Party, which has nine seats in Parliament: four of its MPs maintain a blog. They are Christina Gestrin, Pehr Löv, Astrid Thors, and Eva Biaudet.
      Biaudet writes only occasionally, Thors writes in Swedish, Finnish, and English; her texts are specific and to the point, while many other parliamentary bloggers, regardless of party affiliation, write about their personal lives - and the weather.
      In the Centre Party, MP Antti Kaikkonen, in addition to Vanhanen and Tölli, maintains a blog.
     
Bloggers in the Social Democratic Party's parliamentary group include Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Minister of Social Affairs and Health Tuula Haatainen. Other SDP bloggers are Susanna Rahkonen and Arto Bryggare.
      Tuomioja is the most prolific SDP blogger, and his comments are often quoted in the media.
      The blogs of Rahkonen and the Swedish People's Party's Gestrin are interactive: the public at large is allowed to contribute to them. However, Rahkonen has not received any comments recently, and Gestrin has attracted only one reaction.
     
Bloggers of the National Coalition Party include Lyly Rajala, Anna-Leena Hemming, Arto Satanen, and Raija Vahasalo.
      In the Left Alliance, Suvi-Anne Siimes writes in a blog, as does Anne Huotari - occasionally.
      In the Green League Jyrki Kasvi is a regular blogger. The blog of Green MP and presidential candidate Heidi Hautala, which also took comments from outsiders, petered out after the elections. Another Green Parliamentarian, Janina Andersson, has a blog, but sometimes there are long gaps between her contributions.
     
The Christian Democrats' Bjarne Kallis writes regularly. "Toimi's weblog will come here" promises Toimi Kankaanniemi on his web site.
     
Some parliamentarians, especially those with a ministerial portfolio, write on their websites once a week in an official tone on decisions and events, but also to some extent, about their own feelings. The writers call these weekly reviews Internet columns, political weeks, feelings of the past week, weekly diaries, or monthly letters.
      Minister of Culture Tanja Karpela (Centre) has a space called "Talk about Gossip", but it is empty.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.4.2006  

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RAIJA KAIKKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
raija.kaikkonen@hs.fi