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Media Landscape - Estonia

Introduction

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Estonia, a small country – 45,000 sq kms – at the Baltic Sea, during the past 20 years has gone through a comprehensive transition from a colonial territory within the USSR into an independent democracy, which became the member state of the EU in 2004. The population of 1.36 million is served by six daily newspapers, a plethora of weekly papers and magazines, three domestic television channels and over 20 radio stations. The national structure of the country is made up by two relatively detached communities – ethnic Estonians (927,000) and Russian-speaking community, which predominantly consist of newsettlers from the Soviet era. These two communities are characterized by distinct media consumption patterns. Traditionally, Estonians have been avid readers, listeners and viewers.

Media consumption is an important feature of people’s everyday life in Estonia. 74.5 percent of the population (Estonians: 82.1%, Russian-speakers: 59.7%) read newspapers regularly; 69.7 percent (E: 77.8, R: 54.0) read magazines regularly. Still only 32 percent turns to newspapers for news daily. 68 percent of the population watches TV daily for news, 55 percent listens to radio daily for news. The average inhabitant of Estonia listens daily to radio for 4 hours and 52 min and watches TV for 4 hours and 4 min per day. 46.6 percent of the population has used Internet during the past six months (Source: TNS EMOR, Eurobarometer; 2003).

Television and radio are notably more trusted media types than newspapers. According to Eurobarometer (2004) 75 per cent trusts or generally trusts radio and television, compared to 52 percent for newspapers. Public radio and television are by about one third more trusted than private radio and television (Source: University of Tartu, 2003). The trust rating for Internet news portals is as low as 20 percent.

1. The Written Press

The press has fully moved away from being under the state control and is now an independently run sector. Newspaper privatisation took place at the beginning of the 1990s, on a case-by-case basis, with the government agreeing that it should no longer be involved in newspaper publishing.

The newspaper sector, like the rest of media, is characterized by heavy concentration but the market has stabilized since the major mergers in 1998. The national market is being dominated by two major publishing groups: Postimees Group (formally known as Eesti Meedia) and Ekspress Group.

In 1998, two Scandinavian media companies, Sweden’s Marieberg and Norway’s Schibsted, made important acquisitions in Estonia, further strengthening media concentration. The main newspaper figures in the second quarter of 2006 were as follows: 6 national dailies (4 in Estonian, 2 in Russian), 10 weeklies (6 in Estonian, 4 in Russian) and 24 regional papers (19 in Estonian, 5 in Russian). The overall estimated number of newspaper titles could be around 130, including newspaper-like publications, and advertising papers. The circulations of the papers have seen a dramatic decrease. The combined daily circulation of all the member papers of the Estonian Newspaper Association in 1992 was 831,400. In 2005, it was 543,600.

The newspaper sector maintains its majority share in the total advertising expenditure, although gradually ceding it to television sector. The print media continues to enjoy a 0 per cent value added tax for subscriptions although the single copy sales are taxed with the regular rate of 18 per cent.

The magazine market is lead by family, home and lifestyle magazines

2. Broadcast Media

The public channel Eesti Televisioon (ETV), where the bulk of the programming is in Estonian, also includes a daily newscast and some feature programmes in Russian. Besides ETV, Estonian viewers can watch two private TV channels: Kanal 2 and TV3. Channels from the Russian Federation (as well as other pan-European satellite channels) can now be watched on cable TV.

According to law amendments of 2001 there is no advertising in public broadcasting and the number of nation-wide terrestrial channels is limited to two. The television sector is being operated by Scandinavian players. Norway’s Schibsted owns Kanal 2 and Sweden’s MTG Group owns TV3.

Estonians prefer domestic programmes, Russian-speakers those broadcasted from Russia. The public service radio organisation Eesti Raadio broadcasts on four different channels and there are another 25 private radio stations operating. The programmes of the public radio are granted quality nation-wide coverage areas by law, while private stations are limited to coverage areas provided by ‘regional’ licenses.

Most of urban areas have been covered by cable television networks, which are being remodelled into digital networks within broadband data communication service packages.

Digital television is in the stage of testing. The government has renewed the deadline for final transition from analogue to digital, which is December 2012. Digital radio has not been implemented.

3. News Agencies

There is one news agency operating in Estonia – the Baltic News Service (BNS), which is a regional news agency covering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. BNS is fully owned by Finnish Alma Media.

The domestic Estonian News Agency (Eesti Teadete Agentuur, ETA) was privatized to a Latvian news agency in 2000 and went into bankruptcy three years later.

4. Online Media

The rate of computerisation and Internet penetration in Estonia is comparatively high. 40 percent of households and 90 percent of offices have Internet connection. Many newspapers have their online-versions and in 2005, the public television also created an online news portal. Most of the terrestrial radio programmes can be listened to online as well. Blog-journalism has also instituted itself. However, the experts evaluate that the Estonian media landscape in total is characterised by scarcity of new media outlets.

5. Media Organisations

The main media organisations are the Newspaper Association (defining itself as a multi-task organisation for the newspaper publishers, editors and journalists), and the Association of Broadcasters (representing the interests of commercial broadcasters). The Journalists’ Union executes the role of a trade union as well as that of a professional guild. Media educators have formed the Society Media Educators. Independent producers in the audiovisual sector have also a representation body as well as the advertising agencies do have theirs. Media research is carried out by TNS EMOR (former Baltic Media Facts), as well as by some other Gallup-organisations.

When the associations of publishers and broadcasters assemble most of the players of the broadcast sector, most of active journalists have not affiliated to the journalists’ union.

6. Media Policies

Freedom of expression is granted by the Constitution. From the legislative point of view, Estonia offers a liberal environment for the media. No ‘Media Law’ exists; print media issues are covered by general laws, sometimes leaving unregulated areas. To set up a newspaper no license, permit or registration is required.

Broadcasting is regulated by the Broadcasting Act, passed in 1994. The law was brought in line with EU directives. As of 2005 the Act on Electronic Communication entered into force. This law prescribes, in combination of the Broadcasting Act, the competencies between the Ministry of Culture, issuing the broadcasting licenses (for content), and the Estonian National Communication Board, issuing the technical licenses.

Cases regarding libel are covered primarily by Law of Obligations Act. In libel, the burden of proof rests with the media. The media in Estonia is also affected by the Copyright Act, Competition Act, Language Act, Advertising Act, State Secrets Act, and the Public Information Act. There is no fixed state subsidy system for the press in Estonia. State policy about digitalisation leaves the question about financing unanswered.

7. Accountability Systems

Broadcasting and advertising are predominantly regulated by statutory rules, written press relies on self-regulation and good practices. Internet has been regulated only from the technical point of view. Due to dissentions towards principles of self-regulation two press councils exist.

In December 1997, the Estonian Newspaper Association passed a Code of Press Ethics. The Code has served as a source document for the Press Council, a non-statutory self-regulatory body set up to handle complaints about the media. The activities of the public service broadcasting are supervised by the Broadcasting Council, a parliament-appointed body. Public involvement in discussion about media quality is poor.

8. Conclusions Recent Development and Future Trends

The future will probably bring further media concentration, as the State’s media policy will remain quite liberal towards this issue as well as towards the media issues in general. The tensions provoked by the revision of provisions in re the organization of the PSB will probably end up with new law merging public radio and television into one, as expected, while the efforts to intensify the political control over the public broadcasting will die away like in several earlier cases when the political interference was feared.

9. On line resources

Bibliography

  • Bærug, R. (ed.) (2005). The Baltic Media World. Riga.

  • Kalmus, V. et al (ed.) (2004). Eesti elavik 21. sajandi algul. Ülevaade uurimuse Mina. Maailm. Meedia tulemustest, (Estonian habitation at the beginning of the 21st century. Overview of the research project Me. World. Media), Tartu: TÜ Kirjastus.

  • Harro-Loit, H., and Lauk, E. (2003). “Self-Regulation: watchdog’s collar or shelter for the guild?”, in N. Malmelin (ed.), Writings on International and National Communication, in Viestinnän julkaisuja, 8, Department of Communication, Helsinki: University of Helsinki, pp. 98-108.

  • Loit, U. (2005). Estonia chapter, in Television across Europe: regulation, policy and independence. Monitoring Reports. udapest: Open Society Institute, Volume I, pp 555-621.

  • Paju, T. (2004). Estonia chapter, in B. Perković (ed.), Media Ownership and its Impact on Media Independence and Pluralism, Ljubljana: Peace Institute and SEENPM.

  • Šein, H. (2005). Suur teleraamat, (Big TV-book), Tallinn: TEA.

  • Vihalemm, P. (ed.) (2002). Baltic Media in Transition, Tartu: TÜ Kirjastus.

  • Vihalemm, P. (ed.) (2004). Meediasüsteem ja meediakasutus Eestis 1965-2004, (Media system and media usage in Estonia in 1965-2004), Tartu: TÜ Kirjastus.

10. Author

Urmas Loit, the Managing Director of the Association of the Estonian Broadcasters and a lecturer on radio at the University of Tartu. He is the former Chairman of the Press Council (1996-2002) and has been working as a journalist at the public radio (1988-1995).

11. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Television

Radio

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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