Frightened Finns rush to pay their TV licence fees

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Many of the Finns who have been watching television without an appropriate TV licence have been alarmed by the recent public discussion on the subject and have subsequently hastened to inform the authorities of the television sets in their possession.
      Last week alone at least a thousand citizens notified the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) that they needed a television licence. Anssi Laakso, head of the television licence administration at the authority, reported on Wednesday that hundreds of people per day have inquired about a TV licence, contacting the authority through the Internet as well as over the phone.
      Such results have usually been achieved only through campaigns and intensified inspections.
     
FICORA decided on Tuesday that information on who has paid a television licence fee is a matter of public record. On Wednesday discussions were still held on the details of the policy. It was decided that information on late or unpaid licence fees would not be published.
      The public debate on television licence fees in Finland was set off by last week's events in Sweden, where it was discovered that three ministers in the new centre-right government of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt had failed to pay their TV licence. The Culture Minister, Cecilia Stegö Chilò, who resigned on Monday, would have been responsible for public broadcasting in the country. She had not paid her licence for sixteen years.
      The discussion sparked off a response among Finnish politicians, with Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) expressing doubts about a request from the Finnish News Agency for ministers to divulge whether they had paid their fees or whether they had previously employed "black" labour. Vanhanen later said he had no objection to the fact that licence-fee details were a matter of public record.
     
Around two million Finnish households report owning a television.
      The number grew until 2003. Roughly half of those households who do not pay a licence-fee actually have a TV receiver in the home, according to FICORA.
      Something like 20,000 cases of non-payment come to light each year. By law, people are required to declare to FICORA the acquisition of a TV set.
      The government set the licence fee last in June of this year. The annual fee is now EUR 208,15.
      The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE covers around 90 per cent of its budget through licence-fees, which are the norm among most European public broadcasting companies.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Communications authority: TV licence records are public documents (18.10.2006)

Links:
  FICORA – About television fees
  TV Licence Fees (Wikipedia)

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