Mr. Niiranen has worked as the (Executive) Director of the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association ENPA in Brussels, Belgium since 2004.  ENPA is a non-profit organization of 5100 national, regional and local newspaper titles from 23 European countries, two associate members and one observer member, representing the various interests of newspaper publishers to the European Union Institutions.  More than 120 million copies of newspapers are sold each day and read by over 235 million people in Europe.

Before joining ENPA, Mr. Niiranen held the position of Director of Legal Affairs at the Federation of the Finnish Media Industries from 2001 until 2004, in Helsinki, Finland.  In addition, he has worked as the Managing Director of the Finnish Periodical Publishers’ Association (1998-1999), Principal Legal Counsel to several other publishers’ associations (1996-1998), at the Ministry of Culture and Education as the General Secretary of the Finnish Copyright Council (1994-1995), at a District Court Judge trainee (1993-1994) and as an Associate at a law firm (1992-1993).

A native of Finland, Mr. Niiranen has obtained law degrees from Georgetown Law (LL.M. in International Legal Studies, 2000), from the University of Helsinki (Post-graduate LL.M. Diploma majoring in European and Comparative Law, 1997) and from the University of Lapland (Master of Laws, LL.M. 1992).

Mr. Niiranen has authored or co-authored seven non-fictional books (e.g. on Copyright Law, Media Law) and lectures on media-related topics regularly.  He is also a columnist to a trade magazine Finnish Press –Suomen Lehdistö since 1996.