Estonia/ 4.2 Recent policy issues and debates  

4.2.5 Media pluralism and content diversity

After the privatisation of the previously state-owned media during the early 1990s, the initially small media enterprises started to merge into a few larger corporations. In 1998, the majority shares of the two largest corporations of printed media were bought by Scandinavian-based international corporations. Likewise, the major private TV channels are in foreign ownership. In order to prevent media concentration, the Broadcasting Act obliges the Ministry of Culture not to grant broadcasting permission to an enterprise or group of enterprises that could result in the emergence of a monopoly in a certain region, or if the same enterprise is also a publisher of printed daily or weekly newspapers.

The political role and (perhaps lacking) objectivity of the media have recurred as discussion themes during the past few years. The major dailies are all politically independent, but it has been argued that the inexperience and youth of many journalists have caused them to accept, uncritically, the neo-liberal tendencies now prevailing in Estonian politics. On the other hand, analysts have suggested that, since late 2003, social problems caused by these trends have started to receive more attention in the press.

Broadcasting legislation guarantees the independence of broadcasters from the state and prescribes political balance. It also specifies quotas for the share of domestic and European programming, and for the share of programmes produced by the broadcaster itself (see also  chapter 5.3.8). Estonian Television (ETV), which is the biggest producer of original programmes in the Estonian and Russian languages, has largely succeeded in fulfilling its role as a public broadcaster.

In autumn 2007, the possibility of launching a separate National TV-channel showing programmes and news in Russian was intensively discussed. However, by October 2008, no such channel has yet been launched and the discussion seems to have ceased.