... until disturbed, a manure pile doesn't stink.

With that in mind, let's not provoke Maxim. He has been mercifully quiet of late.

But Maxim is mentally disturbed...

Your criticism is unfair.
The Estonian part of the newspaper is very good by every measure.
The English part leaves something to be desired. Toomas Merilo's comment, above, is fair but misdirected to Laas, rather than the English-language editor. It's also a part that editor's job to edit the language. He often fails here.
A professional newspaper? What's that? Certainly not something like the Toronto Star which refuses to distinguish editorials from news reports.

Laas has and will continue to do more for the Estonian community than our regular armchair critic Toomas Merilo has or ever will do. To his credit, occasionally TM makes an interesting observation, but he doesn't cut the mustard anywhere near as well as Laas has succeeded in doing. As for the other pitiful remarks which some of my regular critics try to get under my skin, I can only say that my unfailing confidence in this newspapers wonderful editorial board will never tempt me to stoop to the same guttural decrepit games they pursue here week in week out. I have never tired of the nonsense nor will I succumb to their overt pressure to express my rights as much as they presume the right to express theirs.

whether you like the content of the toronto star or not, it does adhere to pretty strict rules of journalism. The grammar and syntax and style are on a much higher plane than that of most television reporting or of Toronto school English teachers for that matter.

At least there are "Opinion" pieces, labeled as such, in the big dailies on our continent. The writers may be ignorant of great chunks of history or have little cultural awareness, and may be shamelessly lazy at doing research, they nevertheless hold to a set of traditional rules of style and writing techniques, syntax and grammar.. Community newspapers, like the Mirror, also uphold these standards, but Eesti Elu doesn't have professional Canadian/US/British newspaper editing input -- eg. people who have studied journalism or have a track record professionally, even on the most basic level, of what is required in order to garner respect or credibility in that field. That said, however, EESTI ELU has some GREAT ARTICLES FOR SURE> And IT INFORMS US OF MANY THINGS> To me its a VALUABLE POSTER BOARD, pot pourri of many things- wild and rambling. BUT YES, it lacks consistency in its standards and an overview of how to organize news, editorial and feature content -- and of photos

Was primarily referring to the English portion.

If one has studied or been trained in journalism, it becomes obvious that EE is lacking in some areas. But much of Canadian journalism has this same problem. This appears to be from a lack of professional journalism training, or inadequate training.

Overall, still feel that EE functions best as a great website/portal for the community vs. as a newspaper.

Interesting piece but agree with Merilo's point about the by-line.
The situation regarding the newspaper needs to be reviewed. It's limping along as a welfare case within the community: not viable as a commercial entity and a drain on resources that could be used to provide much needed updgrades to materials in Estonian schools and elsewhere etc.
As for professionalism: how do you expect to attract anyone with talent to a paper that 1) cannot offer a decent salary 2) isn't read by anyone? Having said that, I think Pr. Puusaag has done a wonderful job with the limited tools she has to work with - archaic political views notwithstanding.
Let's not forget that all of the news published here is available on the many Estonian news sites as well as major western news sites. While this site seems to have become a dumping place for conspiracy theories and stamp-collection tid-bits, it does still feature some useful community based news republished from the paper edition.

EE is a great website/portal for the community!
For instance, many of us living in Joekaaru, who do not speak the language (and thus never attend meetings), and even for those who do, would never have learned of the knife being stabbed into our collective backs by its leaders there. Thank you EE! Carry on the good work.