In the annual ranking by Reporters Without Borders, Estonia was assigned 11th place this year. The organization describes the Estonian environment for journalists as “broadly favorable” despite the fact that the private media are mostly in the hands of just a very small number of individuals.
Estonia moved up one place since last year when it ranked 12th.
Reporters Without Borders also wrote that despite the favorable conditions, pressure on journalists is increasing, especially considering that selling advertising and advertising space is playing an ever greater role in the business.
The organization criticizes Postimees Grupp’s owner, Margus Linnamäe. “Recently, the owner of one of the two dominant private media corporations, who is also conservative Isamaa party member, was criticized for direct interference in the editorial process,” they write. “He had personally appointed leading the staff and promoted a conservative worldview in a new newspaper section he opened before the parliamentary elections.”
With the comment, Reporters Without Borders are alluding to recent changes on Postimees’ editorial staff, including the appointment of former ERR radio editor, Peeter Helme, as the paper’s new editor-in-chief. Despite a flawless record, Mr. Helme has been faced with some amount of criticism for his conservative world view, driven mainly by the fact that he is a nephew of the chairman of the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), Mart Helme.
The organization also describes the situation of the Russian-language media in Estonia as “problematic.” Russian-speaking journalists’ needs are somewhat disregarded, they write. Still: “All of the biggest newsrooms have a Russian language section where Russian speaking journalists work, but their audiences are small and therefore, they struggle to make themselves heard.”
