Yle News is to start using political party identifiers when we mention politicians in political contexts, in a similar way to the Finnish-language website.
Trying to flag up affiliations without the identifiers can lead to somewhat cumbersome sentences where we shoehorn in the party link with additional clauses where a simple (SDP) or (NCP) after the individual's name would have been simpler.
We are now adding these identifiers to our stories in the same way as Yle's Finnish online news service.
So when we first mention Sanna Marin we will say Sanna Marin (SDP), if we have not already mentioned her affiliation, and when we quote Petteri Orpo it will often read Petteri Orpo (NCP).
There are exceptions. In a non-political context, we won't use the same identifiers. So if we talk about an ex-politician taking up a new role, we would not use the (party name) format but rather explain the individual's party background in the text. Or if the Prime Minister invites an ice hockey team for coffee after they win a gold medal, we generally won't include the identifier.
The main parties in Finland and abbreviations we use for them are as follows:
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is a centre-left party close to and largely funded by the trade unions.
The National Coalition Party (NCP) is a centre-right pro-business party with both liberal and conservative traditions.
The Finns Party (Finns) has a populist, nationalist outlook and shares many traits with radical right parties across Europe.
The Centre Party (Cen) is grounded in rural, agrarian traditions and tends to keep to the middle of the road in politics, while representing its predominantly rural supporters.
The Green Party (Green) is an environmental party with economically liberal and left wings, with stronger support in urban areas.
The Left Alliance (Left) is the main successor of the Finnish People's Democratic League, which included the Communist Party of Finland.
The liberal Swedish People's Party (SPP) represents the interests of Finland's five-percent Swedish-speaking minority and is strongest in coastal communities.
On the centre-right, the Christian Democrats (CD) are a traditional, conservative party on both social and economic issues.
Harri 'Hjallis' Harkimo left the NCP in 2018 to set up his own Movement Now (MN) party, which says it tries to avoid ideological lines and allows members to decide their own position. It currently only has one MP, but some 8,000 members.