Day-to-day information work

Information officers write press releases, organise press conferences, and produce online news items, electronic newsletters and yearbooks. They draw up information material, maintain contact with journalists and the media in the Nordic countries and autonomous territories, and arrange interviews with Nordic politicians.

Interpretation and translation

The Communications Department also employs interpreters and translators who are responsible for the translation of the minutes of meetings, reports, web content and other material. The Nordic languages are used at meetings of the Nordic Council and Council of Ministers. This means that many meetings require interpretation between the Scandinavian languages and Finnish. Interpretation is also available to and from Icelandic. This work is carried out by freelancers or by the department's own interpreters.

At meetings with international partners, e.g. the Baltic Assembly (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania's equivalent of the Nordic Council), or at meetings of ministers from the five Nordic countries and the three Baltic countries, interpretation is available as a rule between Scandinavian/Finnish and English, and sometimes Russian.

Publications

The Communications Department also includes a publication unit (PUB), which takes care of the publication of reports and other written material produced in different areas of official Nordic co-operation. The reports are written in one of the Scandinavian languages or in English. Some are translated into Finnish or other languages. Many of the publications can be downloaded free of charge from the website.

Free photos

The Communications Department has an in-house photographer, who is based in the publications unit. The photos, which can be used free of charge as long as the source is cited, are found in the image database.

Web unit

The staff of the web unit staff are responsible for the day-to-day operation of www.norden.org, as well as its ongoing development, including content, accessibility and user-friendliness.

The Communications Department draws its staff from all of the Nordic countries, which enables it to tailor information to suit the languages and cultures of the respective countries and so that it addresses topical concerns in them.