Norway tops the list in 2023 as having the most freedoms for press, followed by Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania and Estonia. The bottom of the list is made up by North Korea, China, Vietnam and Iran. Canada is in 15th place, USA in 45th and Russia in 164th place.
“Although press freedom is guaranteed on the legal and political levels, journalists face the risk of self-censorship due to anti-defamation legislation and cyber-bullying,” said RSF in their report about Estonia.
"Media ownership in Estonia has become so concentrated that it can be considered an oligopoly. The owners of the two major media groups (Postimees Group and Ekspress Group) also have stakes in other business sectors. Estonian private media are operating within a small market with limited access to funding, which constrains them to looking for new revenue sources such as organizing events. The budget for public broadcasting is increasingly limited and may be subject to political influence", reported RSF.
While physical attacks against them are extremely rare, journalists have been exposed to a growing number of online threats by private individuals, the most severe cases being reported to the police and investigated.
It is common to threaten editors with data protection fines, as well as verbal attacks against journalists.
One example of press intimidation in Estonia can be found a year ago, when the prosecutor's office fined Eesti Ekspress journalists for professional work. Delfi Media, the publisher of Eesti Ekspress, was also fined. As a result, the Union of Estonian Media Companies made a public address along with the Estonian National Broadcasting Company, where they argued that it was a case of gagging, restriction of freedom of speech and threats and intimidation of journalists.
In another case, the Postimees was forced to publish an anonymous source in two court cases. This despite the fact that the media has the right and duty to protect the sources who entrusted their story to the editor. The situation was resolved only after Postimehe appealed to the Supreme Court.
A growing trend in Estonia is to sue the journalist personally, instead of filing a claim against a media organization that is collectively responsible for the published content.
