Madelaine Ziniak is in charge of Omni Television, two ethnic TV channels on the Toronto media market housed at the corner of Lakeshore Rd. and Bathurst St in the old Loblaws head office building. It has been owned by Rogers Media since 1985, and has expanded from 17 ethnic languages to 40 and from one to two channels. The Baltic presence in the Canadian multicultural mosaic has been reflected in Omni’s programming. Toronto area Estonians have been following with interest the Estonian language television program “Telepeegel” for the last two years, broadcast Saturday mornings at 10: 30, with repeats Tuesdays at 8 AM. The first year the series was hosted by Ene-Liis Martens, the present host is Ellen Valter.

Ziniak decided to originally broadcast 13 segments in the first year of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian programming and then extended it to 26 over the course of two years. All of this is remarkable considering that the idea is at present not economically feasible.

"We made the decision here at Omni and the main argument was that such a series involving Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had never been done before. A good response from the communities was very important.”As a starting point, it was necessary to have ”people in the communities capable of preparing the scripts and knowing who does what " explained Ziniak, casting light on the success of the programming to date.

"At the end of the day Omni Television is a commercial, over-the-air broadcaster; however, with the Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian programs we wanted to evolve into something that has never existed in Ontario. We are not a public station but a private broadcaster and we have to look at commercial support and the business infrastucture that can support that." said Ziniak.

Ziniak adds, "We're also very excited that we launched through Omni 2 a third language documentary fund. Many from the community are applying to film documentaries that are produced in the Estonian language, Canadian stories that are reflective of the Estonian community in Canada. Although the series (Telepeegel) fulfils a certain need, the documentaries open opportunities to first-time independent producers who are very enthusiastic about telling a story. They would tell a story about their commusity or an event in their community and produce these documentaries in their own language. These documentaries are also open for international distribution so that you are exporting Canadian multicultural values. We've been accepting proposals for the last two years. There will be different ways to reflect your community. This " fund " will then fund the documentary one hundred per cent, which is unheard of in the industry. "

If there are members in the Estonian-Canadian business community wishing to become involved with the funding of the “Telepeegel” series then the person to speak to at Omni TV about the documentary program is Vicki Giannace who will explain the details of the program and go forward from there.

We are grateful to have an ally in the broadcasting industry like Madelaine Ziniak, whose help was available to us during the Soviet occupation days before Estonian independence was regained, and is still available to us today.

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