YLE chief’s job on the line following bribery allegation



Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s Centre Party has demanded the resignation of the Director-General of public broadcaster YLE, Mikael Jungner, if an accusation in a YLE programme that Mr Vanhanen accepted a bribe proves baseless. The head of the party’s parliamentary bloc, Timo Kalli, made the demand today on behalf of the party’s 51 MPs.

Mr Vanhanen again categorically denied the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s claim that a valuable load of lumber was delivered for free when his house in Nurmijärvi was being built in the 1990s.

Mr Jungner later said he would consider resigning if the claim made in the programme Silminnäkijä (Eyewitness) on Monday turns out to be wrong. He says that the Director-General must carry moral responsibility for the company’s programmes. The former Microsoft executive has led the public broadcaster for four and a half years.