Connect with journalists seeking sources in Finland.
NYT: PHP? Hei! Olen palannut – olen New York Timesin toimittaja ja kirjoitan Suomea käsitteleviä juttuja. (Tulossa on pian myös hauskempi juttu Pentulivestä – kiitos kaikille, jotka vastasivat aiempaan viestiini!) Mietin tänään, onko kukaan teistä kärsinyt tästä PHP-ongelmasta? Näyttää siltä, että se on iskenyt Suomeen voimakkaasti – mitä oikein on tapahtunut? Kuulisin mielelläni keneltä tahansa, joka haluaa jutella kanssani: [email redacted]. Kiitos! \\Hey! I am back -- I'm a New York Times reporter who writes about Finland. (I have a more fun story about Pentulive publishing soon -- thank you to everyone who answered my earlier post!) Today, I'm wondering -- have any of you been affected by this PHP issue? I see it's hit Finland hard -- what's been happening? I'd love to hear from anyone willing to speak to me: [email redacted]. Thanks!\\
I'm looking for parents of under-18s from an EU country to interview! 👋 The new EU KIDS Act and its regulations on children's social media use have sparked a lot of debate. I'm working on a story about it for Phoenix Weekly, a Chinese-language news magazine under Phoenix TV and I'd love to hear from parents who are willing to share their views. Whether you welcome the new rules, have doubts about them, or feel somewhere in between, all perspectives are welcome. I'm especially interested in how you handle social media at home and what influence of social media do you see in children . The interview can be a short call or written answers, whichever suits you best. If you'd like to take part, feel free to comment below or send me a DM. Thank you, and sharing this post with parents in your network would help a lot! 🙏 #EUKIDSAct #SocialMedia #Parenting #DigitalWellbeing #Journalism
RESEARCH REQUEST | Seeking an expert in light and human biology in extreme northern climates Howdy y’all. I’m on the hunt for someone who has researched the effects of prolonged darkness and near-constant daylight on human biology, particularly in Northern Europe. The angle I’m exploring is what actually happens to human health in these environments. What trends or anomalies do we see when we simply live with these extreme natural conditions, versus when we intervene with specific lighting strategies? Ultimately, I want to understand what these places can teach us about what our biology really expects from light. If anyone knows someone working in this field, I’d love an introduction! Thank you! 🙏
Book leave time! I'm off my day job from now until November 9, traveling the world to learn from places that are finding positive ways to deal with population decline. The itinerary: Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Japan, South Korea, Singapore. I'll be visiting cities and tiny towns that are rationalizing their urban footprints, caring for their elderly, investing in their workforces, integrating immigrants, and rewilding their rural landscapes. If you study these issues in those countries or have something to share about adapting to demographic evolution, I'd love to hear from you. ✈️
XAMK ignored a formal request for an administrative decision and then ended my study right is this happening nationwide I am a non-EU student at XAMK and my husband is a Finnish citizen. Our marriage is officially registered in Finland. Under Section 13a of the Universities of Applied Sciences Act, tuition fees are not collected from a family member of a Finnish citizen. According to Section 37 of the Foreginer Act, a spouse is considered a family member. But XAMK decided that our Finnish marriage certificate and proof of my husband’s citizenship were insufficient. They required a family-ties residence permit or another document issued by Migri. I currently have a student A permit, while my family-ties permit application has been pending since 13 July 2026. On 27 July, my husband submitted a formal written request specifically asking XAMK to issue an administrative decision a hallintopäätös on my tuition-fee liability. This was not an informal inquiry or a request for general legal advice. We requested an official, reasoned and appealable administrative decision so that we could challenge XAMK’s interpretation through the proper legal procedure. XAMK never issued that decision. On 25 August, our lawyer formally repeated the demand: either confirm my statutory tuition-fee exemption or issue a reasoned and appealable decision. XAMK did not respond to our lawyer either. An education counsellor at the Ministry of Education and Culture also told us by phone that, in her legal view, a Migri-issued family permit was not required. She contacted XAMK and reportedly followed up several times, but XAMK did not respond to her. Because XAMK continued to classify me as liable for tuition fees, Peppi showed the fee as unpaid and I could not enrol as present. On 4 September, I received an automated email stating that my study right had ended retroactively on 31 July because I had either failed to enrol or failed to provide payment or an exemption document. The email did not clearly identify the actual reason, the decision-maker, the legal provisions applied or the appeal procedure. Instead, I was told to apply for restoration of my study right, pay a €50 fee and potentially wait until the next semester. Under Finland’s Administrative Procedure Act, an administrative matter must be handled without undue delay. By 4 September, 39 days had passed since our formal request for a hallintopäätös, yet XAMK had allowed serious consequences to take effect without first issuing the requested decision. This may not be an isolated case. The Ministry told us that I am not the only student facing this situation and that similar cases have been raised elsewhere. That makes this a possible nationwide problem rather than merely a disagreement between one student and XAMK. We have not found clear public guidance from Finnish universities of applied sciences explaining how a non-EU spouse of a Finnish citizen can prove this exemption without first receiving a family-ties permit from Migri. Why have the universities not updated or clarified their policies despite knowing that these cases exist? Are they simply relying on outdated common instructions because changing the procedure would require additional work? Or does the restrictive interpretation continue because it results in more tuition fees being collected? I genuinely do not know, but the question deserves public scrutiny. We are now submitting an urgent request for rectification and asking XAMK to suspend the enforcement of the loss of my study right. Would contacting Yle or another national media outlet be useful? Should we also contact the Parliamentary Ombudsman or the Chancellor of Justice about XAMK’s failure to issue the requested administrative decision before allowing these consequences to occur? I would especially like to hear from: students who have faced the same problem at another Finnish university; people who have received a formal decision concerning this exemption; lawyers or journalists familiar with higher-education administration; anyone who has brought a similar case before an administrative court. If this is happening to students across Finland, it should not remain hidden as a series of separate individual cases!
Schengen border controls (ie within the Schengen area): Have you experienced any lately or seen one? I'm writing about the "temporary" checks that several EU countries have re-introduced and I'd love to hear as many experiences (or views) as possible.
Get instant alerts when journalists post new requests. Join the community of sources landing media opportunities daily.