In December, Helsinki lives in twilight. There is daylight for only two or three hours.
Finland is the happiest country in the world. Not because it has much light, but because it has a great deal of trust. Early in the morning, before the city fully awakens, you can hear the footsteps of people in the streets.
Written by: Lutfi Dervishi
The Finnish national anthem says, “we are poor, we have only pine trees.” In reality, 72 percent of the country is covered by forests, and around 20 percent of GDP is linked to the wood industry. There should be more light in this country, because there is so much to see and to learn.
A Finnish professor, Tapio Varis, formulated the term “media education” long before the rest of Europe turned it into a fashionable concept. Today, for Finns, this is not a slogan but state policy and everyday practice.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said with a smile, “we are used to bad weather; disinformation is a small thing.” Not because it does not exist, but because society is trained to deal with it.
This is where the fundamental difference lies. Finland does not try to block false information; it teaches citizens how to recognize it. The philosophy is clear: you cannot shut down the internet or social networks, but you can train the mind. (In Albania, for over a year, TikTok was shut down under a false pretext. The result? Youth crime—now very real—increased, and the number of TikTok users multiplied. Forbidden fruit tastes sweeter.)
Media literacy in Finland has been part of school curricula for years, integrated across different subjects to equip young people to survive the information tsunami. Students learn to distinguish fact from opinion, news from propaganda, error from manipulation. They learn critical thinking.
Finland is a society built on trust. This is reflected in the media as well. Few television channels, a lot of content. In an average hotel, you see three public television channels and a few from neighboring countries. No bombardment, no cacophony. Trust in the media is around 80 percent.
The budget of public television is about 400 million euros. Funding comes through a direct tax—not per device, not per household—around 180 euros per year. “It’s worth it,” says Vesa, “less than one euro a day to be well informed.”
Laura, a student, does not pay yet. “But one day I will happily pay taxes,” she says.
The pact is clear: citizens pay taxes in exchange for quality services.
Education, education, education
Asked to list the three main takeaways from a two-day visit, almost all representatives from the Western Balkans agreed: education, education, education.
There is much to learn from the Finnish education system. It is based on equality, universal access, trust in teachers, and the absence of artificial pressure. There are no school rankings, no national tests designed to produce stress—there is a focus on learning, not punishment.
Teachers are professionals with master’s degrees, respected and autonomous. The national curriculum provides general guidance, but implementation is decided by schools. Media literacy is supported by dedicated institutions, such as the National Agency for Education and the National Audiovisual Institute, in cooperation with various ministries and civil society.
(In Albania, although conditions are different, the first steps have begun. The Albanian Media Institute, together with the Ministry of Education, has launched initiatives to integrate modules on critical media reading in schools and training programs for teachers.)
Success in media education is the reason Finland does not panic over algorithms, deepfakes, information warfare, or Artificial Intelligence. Society is trained, not frightened.
A visit to the Helsinki Upper Secondary School of Media Arts makes the theory tangible. The most beautiful surprise was Ema and Sofia, two girls from Kosovo—one born in Finland, the other there for only eight years.
The state offers children of immigrants the opportunity to preserve their mother tongue as well. Identity is not seen as a problem, but as an asset.
Finland reminds us of something simple yet essential: the fight against disinformation is not won through censorship, but through education. Not through panic, but by cultivating trust.
In a world where algorithms decide what we see, Finland has chosen to invest in the mind.