Director and editor-in-chief of Finnish broadcaster YLE Jouko Jokinen brushed off Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's demands to stop broadcasting interviews with terrorist leaders, calling them the dictator's delusional fantasies, EuroActiv reported.

One of Erdogan's demands for allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO is a ban on interviews with terrorist leaders by local state broadcasters.

Erdogan's comments were likely linked to recent reports from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) from Syria and an interview with Kurdish leader Salih Muslim.

The world will not change from trying to control the media and freedom of speech, Jokinen said on the YLE website.

He was also supported by Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. The Finnish Broadcasting Company, like all media in the country, enjoys complete freedom of the press, he said.