Independent Radio Broadcasting

A new era in Sámi radio broadcasting began in Finland in October 1968, when the first half-an-hour-long program on current affairs was broadcast in Sámi. This program, Sámi ságat, no longer consisted only of news: it also contained interviews, music and inserts on cultural affairs.

"In addition to being a language of news and the Word of God, the Sámi language can now be used on the radio for making other types of issues and thoughts visible", journalist Oula Näkkäläjärvi stated in the beginning of the first such a longer program.

The model for the program type came from Sweden, where Maj Lis Skaltje had been, for a while, making programs on current affairs in Sámi and Swedish under the program name Sámi ságat. In Finland, the programs were made mainly in Sámi, but they sometimes contained parts in Finnish, too.

Even though Sámi ságat was the only more notable reform within the Finnish Sámi Radio that took place in the course of many years, it laid the foundation for independent radio broadcasting for the Sámi. The development launched by this change eventually resulted in the Sámi Radio moving to its home region and in employing journalists permanently for Sámi broadcasting.

In the late 1960s, the national self-esteem of the Sámi grew stronger. This showed in Sámi art, such as music and literature, but also in political activity. This Sámi movement helped the forces that worked inside the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE for granting the Sámi an independent status in radio broadcasting.

YLE's journalist Juhani Lihtonen had worked with the Sámi especially in Enontekiö. On the basis of his experience, he felt that it was important for the Sámi to decide themselves on the content of the Sámi programs. This idea was also supported by the director of Lapland's Regional Radio, Jukka Häyrinen.

Together with the representatives of the Sámi, Lihtonen and Häyrinen managed to convince the leadership of the Finnish Broadcasting Company that the Sámi needed to be able to make programs in their own language, on the basis of their own views.

When still working under the auspices of Lapland's Regional Radio, the Sámi Radio began to broadcast programs in the Skolt Sámi language (in the 1970s) and in the Inari Sámi language (in the early 1980s). The purpose of these programs was to support the information activities of the Sámi minorities, too.

There was also a Sámi Program Committee which contributed to putting pressure on the Finnish Broadcasting Company to establish an independent Sámi Radio. The Sámi could also cite the concession of YLE which had, since 1980, contained the sentence "In addition, programs must be broadcast in the Sámi language." The broadcasting of programs in Sámi was included in the "public objectives" of the Finnish Broadcasting Company much later.

Today, the obligation to broadcast programs in Sámi is stated in the 1994 Law on the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. According to the law, "It is the task of the Broadcasting Company to produce services in the Sámi language."