I’m a journalist producing original stories, mostly about Finland, that have captured the imagination of millions around the world.
I went freelance upon moving to Finland after a 23-year career in the BBC Newsroom in London.
I’m now based in Oulu and my main job is covering Finland for the BBC.
I’ve covered the move of the church in Kiruna in northern Sweden in August 2025 for the BBC. The story became huge, largely due to the extraordinary pictures of a beautiful wooden church rolling down the road to its new location. The jaw-dropping visuals appeared to have fascinated the whole world and I ended up reporting live non-stop for 48 hours on TV, radio and social media
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPBFitzCP6Q/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=c20zdjFyd3pvNDZr
and writing two articles for News Online:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-f59e6f5d-1dd0-4893-a52f-162b60a695d9https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cde3xp4xlw9o
When in Kiruna, I also met up with Kaj to interview them on a story unrelated to the church move.
It was about their impact on their home village Vörå, in western Finland.
This cheerful Swedish-speaking Finnish band catapulted to fame earlier this year with an irresistibly catchy song about going to the sauna – and their success has boosted morale in Vörå in a big way.
This is my story of what happened: https://finland.fi/arts-culture/spotlight-on-vora-finland-the-local-impact-of-eurovision-success/
The article comes with two embedded videos: the first shows how Vörå has changed and the second has Kaj’s reaction to the impact they’ve had.
In September 2025, I started a one-year degree course at Lapin Koulutuskeskus REDU. I’m training to became a wilderness guide.
Most of the course is online but there’s a week of practical training in Lapland each month that I absolutely love.
This is what a typical day at school looks like: learning skiing techniques in pristine Arctic nature – my kind of heaven.
I have cut back on journalism as a result.
But I haven’t been completely idle: three exciting BBC documentaries are coming soon – so come back in a few weeks to see what else I’ve been up to in the autumn other than skiing 😍
During a massive heatwave in Finland in the summer of 2025, I interviewed Santa Claus for the BBC to find out how he, the elves and the reindeer coped with temperatures over 30C for weeks on end. His comments gave me a cheerful start to a very serious story about climate change that was read by almost one million people in two days on the front page of BBC News Online.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0ql98x1nvo
Just like Santa, I prefer winter when I love nothing more than going to the sauna, followed by a dip in an ice hole or a roll in the snow. Imagine my delight when I was asked to write 2,000 words for BBC Future on the health benefits and risks of saunas and ice baths! Here’s part one:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250520-are-saunas-and-cold-plunges-good-for-your-health
And a lively radio version, starting at 18:45 in this link
If you liked the sauna story, check out a collection of all my BBC Future stories: https://www.bbc.com/future/author/erika-benke
Imagine crawling on knees on a playground and picking up IT and coding skills in the process.
This is what happens in Helsinki and I’ve made a video for the BBC about it.
My first foray into sports reporting: a radio documentary on the rematch between two ski legends in Lahti, Finland, on March 23, 2025.
Juha Mieto and Thomas Wassberg, whose encounter at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1980 resulted in the smallest ever margin between gold and silver in Olympic history, are in a class of their own for sportsmanship, values and passion. Have a listen:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l1w6ll
I often cover stories about climate change: this one is about a fascinating research area. I interviewed a group of scientists who were learning ice diving in Kilpisjärvi so they could see what’s happening to the sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctica with their own eyes.
It was a great pleasure to work with such passionate and courageous people. Read their stories here:
Last winter I looked at how sleep was affected by polar night – a time with no sunlight in the Arctic. Do you think we get more and better quality sleep if we live in darkness?
Read this story about my work in Helsingin Sanomat https://www.hs.fi/alueet/art-2000011009641.html
Are you tempted to visit SANTA? Just before Christmas I went to Rovaniemi to interview him and his elves for the BBC World Service to find out how much the business of Christmas contributes to Lapland’s economy. I even asked Santa how much you have to pay to have a chat with him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5zp1
I’ve produced a story for BBC 100 Women about Turku – a city led by women.
Looking back at 2024, my most impactful BBC story was about Finland’s efforts to sort homelessness. https://bbc.in/48zFZaG
Reindeer do a lot more than help Santa
Read my Christmas story for BBC Future: https://bitly.ws/3aHs5
How to raise the next generation
My film for @thisisfinland is about a school on a tiny island in the Turku archipelago where teachers have come up with a great idea to teach life skills to kids.
They introduced a new subject to all grades, ages 6 to 14, to raise awareness of climate change and sustainability – while having a lot of fun.
I was a panelist at a lively discussion in Helsinki, giving tips to foreign academics on how to get media coverage for their work.
Thank you everybody for attending and special thanks to E2 for organising the event so well.
Children of the Forest
Full-time outdoors education for three to five-year-olds, even in the winter?
Read my story about a Helsinki nursery that’s leading the way to connect children with nature.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231031-how-forest-schools-boost-childrens-immune-systems
The shipwreck that could help fight climate change
What if we could store food and drinks on the seabed at constant 4C, saving refrigeration costs?
A 200-year-old shipwreck in the Baltic Sea with drinkable champagne offers solutions with potentially huge green implications.
I went to Åland/Ahvenanmaa for the first time to make this film and I was hugely impressed: small islands with beautiful scenery, friendly people who know what they’re doing and a brewery with gourmet food that you can get to in 15 mins from anywhere on the island – what not to love?
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0glbv33/the-world-s-oldest-drinkable-champagne
How to tackle bike theft
Oulu is a biker’s paradise – and also a hotbed of bike theft.
10% of residents have had their bikes stolen in the last year, with the police not doing much to find them.
Meet Ilkka and his team who spend up to 5 hours of their free time per day to recover stolen bikes.
Over the last year they’ve found 1,300.
What to do with nuclear waste?
Finland has found a solution for the next 100,000 years.
Visiting Onkalo was quite an experience and I’ve gathered so much material that I’ve produced a video and two text pieces.
Have a look at my video:
Here’s my text piece with the video embedded in it.
My second article about Onkalo is about my personal experience of visiting the site:
My favourite text piece for BBC News in 2022.
Why Finland? I spoke to Dhruti in March 2023 on her podcast “Have You Thought About…” explaining just that.
Helsingin Sanomat interviewed me about my documentary on how Ii fights climate change
Mahmud asked me about my career in May 2022.