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Government to renew communications guidelines for emergencies and state of defence

Government Communications Department
Publication date 16.1.2020 8.13
News item 1/2020

The Prime Minister’s Office has appointed a working group to examine the need to renew the central government’s communications guidelines for emergencies and the state of defence and to prepare a proposal for the revised guidelines.

The guidelines prepared by the working group, together with the guidelines for enhanced government communications that entered into force on 20 December 2019, will form an entity that defines the principles, responsibilities and organisation of public communications in different security situations.

The guidelines for government communications during incidents and emergencies that entered into force in 2007 and 2013 focused on management and communications in situations deviating from normal conditions. The current Government Guidelines for Enhanced Communications, which entered into force in December 2019, differ in focus from their predecessors. They do not deal with emergencies and the state of defence and instead draw attention to enhanced communications in normal conditions and to detecting and responding to information influencing. The newly appointed working group will prepare separate guidelines for communications during emergencies and the state of defence, which will also specify the measures for communications preparedness and the raising of preparedness under normal conditions. Separate guidelines were considered necessary because there are separate legal provisions and acts in place for emergencies.

The working group is made up of representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Office of the President of the Republic, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior, the Secretariat of the Security Committee and the Defence Command. The working group’s term of office is 20 January–31 December 2020 and it is chaired by Director of Government Communications Päivi Anttikoski from the Prime Minister's Office.

Decision on the appointment of the working group (in Finnish)

Inquiries: Päivi Anttikoski, Director of Government Communications (Chair of the working group), tel. +358 40 536 4821, Prime Minister’s Office and Kirsti Haimila, Senior Specialist (Vice-Chair of the working group), tel. +358 295 140 122, Ministry of Defence