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Ministry for Foreign Affairs' thisisFINLAND Foreign Correspondents' Programme begins

Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Publication date 10.8.2015 10.42
Press release 185/2015

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise thisisFINLAND Foreign Correspondents' Programme (FCP) on 10–28 August 2015. During the three-week programme, a group of young international journalists will have an opportunity to learn more about Finland, Finnish society and the Finnish way of life.

The programme is an important part of the Foreign Ministry's work in the field of public diplomacy. It is also a significant investment in future media relations. The aim is to increase the participants' interest in Finland and strengthen Finland's profile in the long run. The programme has been administrated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 1990 with more than 400 journalists taken part in it.

During the programme, the participants will be familiarised with Finland's history, politics, economy, culture and other key issues. They will also have meetings with Finland's political leadership, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka. In addition, the programme includes a weekend hosted by a regular Finnish family and visits to Hanko, Turku, and the Åland Islands. The participants will also work for two days in the following Finnish media: Helsingin Sanomat, Iltalehti, Ilta-Sanomat, Kauppalehti, MTV, STT-Lehtikuva and the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle.

The participants are 21–29 years old and were selected from among 1,500 applicants. The number of applicants was twice as high as in 2013 when the programme was last organised. This year's 22 participants represent the following countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, SaudiArabia,  Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States.

You may follow the programme via the FCP blog and on FCP's Facebook page.

Requests for interviews: Saija Tyyskä, tel. +358 295 351 949, email: [email protected].

For more information on the programme: Johanna Unha-Kaprali, tel. +358 295 351605, email: [email protected].

A list of participants: http://fcp.finland.fi/the-fcp-2015-participants-are-here/

The programme is attached.

Lenita Toivakka Timo Soini
 
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