At a time when journalism is said to be facing an epistemic crisis, the Baltic Sea islands tell a different story. On Åland, Gotland, Bornholm, and Saaremaa, local newsrooms still verify their information and connect to and sustain public life. Besides being a source of information, their journalism is also part of the islands’ shared identity – and a reminder that a free press is something worth celebrating.
There is much talk about journalism being in an epistemic crisis – struggling to remain an authority in an information landscape increasingly polluted by AI‑generated disinformation. It is becoming harder to distinguish truth from falsehood, and many people simply give up trying.
At least for now, that knowledge crisis is not acute on our Baltic Sea islands – Gotland (60,000 inhabitants), Bornholm (40,000), Saaremaa (32,000), and Åland (30,000) – where professional journalists continue to verify the accuracy of the information circulating. They work for Ålandstidningen, Nya Åland, and Ålands Radio; for Helagotland/GT/GA, SR P4 Gotland, SVT/Östnytt, Magasinet Horisont; for Saarte Hääl and Raadio Kadi; or for Bornholms Tidende, DR Bornholm, and TV2 Bornholm. The journalists and politicians we talk to are often taken aback when we ask about the presence of disinformation, conspiracy theories, or polarisation. Offshore wind power gets people fired up on Åland; contaminated drinking water on Gotland; on Bornholm, irritation over houses that stand empty most of the year because the owners only show up in summer; and on Saaremaa, locals point to, among other things, the closure of parish schools, low salaries and high prices, and, at times, limited access to specialised medical care. But an epistemic crisis? No, that would be an exaggeration given the supply of verified information. Accountable media led by editors serve both as safety valves for people who want to be heard and as platforms for dialogue and conflict resolution. They are also arenas where people become known to one another. Hasse Svensson, the legendary editor‑in‑chief, once set the goal that every Ålander should appear in the newspaper at least once a year. In the column “Children in Pictures”, whole families with newborn babies are featured. On Gotland, local residents from all 92 parishes on the island were interviewed in radio programmes such as “Gotland Runt”. The Saaremaa newspaper Saarte Hääl has an active social media presence, where residents often see themselves featured in stories and photos from local events.
Hasse Svensson, the legendary editor‑in‑chief, once set the goal that every Ålander should appear in the newspaper at least once a year.
It is in these media arenas that the stories about ourselves – our island identities shaped and renewed. That identity is marked by a sense of belonging closely tied to feelings of vulnerability and isolation. Only someone who lives on an island knows the challenges of life on a small outpost in the sea. Storms and cancelled ferries, flights that cannot take off, goods that fail to arrive. Paradoxically, every islander is convinced that their own island is the best place in the world to live.
We are research colleagues with a deep affection for island news media. Despite many years on the mainland, we have not forgotten where we come from—Åland (Carl-Gustav) and Gotland (Andreas). Signe has conducted several years of research on Estonian islands, including Saaremaa, highlighting the importance of island journalism in times of crisis (Ivask & Waschková Císařová, 2024; Lindén, 2015, 2017, 2021). Still, we often feel rather alone in researching this field. And when we created a large consortia for a research project exploring island media systems, the reviewers asked, not once, but three times in their short evaluation: “Why islands?” There is little to no research on media systems on islands, even though they are often strategically located – like Greenland, Svalbard, Saaremaa, Bornholm, and Gotland – and an uninformed population could be an easy target for Russian hybrid operations.
We are research colleagues with a deep affection for island news media. Despite many years on the mainland, we have not forgotten where we come from
We find the media systems on the four islands explored relatively stable: foundation‑owned newspapers (Bornholms Tidende), media companies (NTM Group, which owns Helagotland/GT/GA, and Raadio Kadi, which owns Saarte Hääl), public funding (Ålands Radio, DR Bornholm, SR P4 Gotland), local initiatives such as Magasinet Horisont on Gotland, and also wealthy individual owners (Ålandstidningen, Nya Åland, Raadio Kadi). The supply of journalistic content aimed at islanders is comparatively large relative to many other places in the Nordic region with far larger populations.
How is this possible? Everything depends on people subscribing to newspapers, advertisers choosing to place ads in them, and owners pursuing long‑term, sustainable strategies. Most important of all are journalists who stay close to their readers while remaining independent – and who know what kind of stories creates real value.
To remind people on the islands of the luxury of having so much local media, we published an op‑ed simultaneously in Ålandstidningen, Helagotland, Saarte Hääl, and Bornholms Tidende on World Press Freedom Day. This text is a slightly edited version.
The UN General Assembly established World Press Freedom Day in 1993 as an annual tribute to free and independent media. Without a free press, there is no democracy and no functioning market economy. We should consider ourselves fortunate that the Nordic countries consistently top the Press Freedom Index.
3 May is also a day of remembrance for the journalists who have lost their lives in the service of journalism, and a reminder that press freedom is far from guaranteed everywhere. But the celebrations have faded. Globally, press freedom is in free fall. Only one in a hundred people can enjoy a free press.
For those who can enjoy a free press, this is something to celebrate on 3 May next year!
(Fieldwork on Bornholm was funded by Kulturfonden för Danmark och Finland, and forthcoming fieldwork on Gotland by Mediehistoriska föreningen)
References:
Ivask, S., & Waschková Císařová, L. (2024). Locked up: Local newsrooms managing a digital shift at the centre of the Covid-19 outbreak. Journalism Practice, 18(1), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2023.2266483
Lindén, C. G. (2021). Åland – a peculiar media system. Nordicom Review, 42(s2), 8–21. https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0014
Lindén, C. G. (2017). Media building community: Audience engagement in a micro-nation. In W. Císařová Lenka, Voice of the locality: Local media and local audience (pp. 133–154). Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství.
Linden, T. C. G. (2015). Media innovation in a strange place: Newspaper differentiation on Åland. The Journal of Media Innovations, 2(2), 40–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.5617/jmi.v2i2.993