Jouni Mölsä appointed Director of Communications for the MFA
The Government has today announced the appointment of Jouni Mölsä as Director of Communications at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Mölsä will assume his position on 15 September for a term of five years. He is currently serving as Press Counsellor at the Finnish Embassy in London.
Mr. Mölsä has previously worked as a political reporter for Helsingin Sanomat, roving correspondent in Brussels, radio producer at BBC World Service in London and news reporter for Radio Helsinki. He was chairman of the Finnish political journalists’ association in 2000–2002. Mr. Mölsä has written an eight part television series for MTV3 Finland and six short radio plays for public service broadcaster YLE. He graduated from the Helsinki School of Economics in 1991 with a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration.
There were 22 applicants to the Director of Communications post. The former incumbent, Ms Veera Heinonen was appointed Spokesperson for the President of the Republic in April.
The Director of Communications at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is head of the Department for Communications and Culture, which has a staff of 85. In addition there are 14 press and cultural attaches in Finnish missions abroad.
The MFA Department for Communications and Culture has the following tasks:
• Promotion of Finland’s foreign policy, commercial and economic policy, and development policy objectives by means of public diplomacy
• Development of Finland’s international image
• Promotion of Finnish culture exports
• Provision of information about services offered by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Civic information about the European Union and Finland’s EU membership
• Raising awareness of development and global issues in Finland
• External and internal communications within the Foreign Service
• Coordination of media coverage of high-level visits and international conferences
The newly appointed Director of Communications had the following thoughts on his appointment:
“Strengthening Finland’s international image will benefit all Finnish people, in one way or another. A positive or at least interesting image of our country will smooth the path for Finnish people abroad and make it easier for them to pursue their goals.”
“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs must regularly justify Finland’s position on international issues to the Finnish people and explain why it is important for Finland to maintain its active involvement in the international community. The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
“The task I’ve been given by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is nothing less than to reinvent the Department for Communications and Culture. The whole Department has to rally round and pull together, otherwise this won’t work.”
“I hope that by the time my term is up, the Department for Communication and Culture is a place where people from within the Ministry will come to gain career-building experience of communication, which is becoming ever more important in the position of Ambassador, for instance. I also hope that social media experts will see the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as a place where they can share good stories and gain experience and credit. The world of public diplomacy provides an excellent springboard to many other opportunities.”
Inquiries: Jari Sinkari, Deputy Director General, Department for Communications and Culture, tel. +358 40 352 6129, firstname.lastname@formin.fi