The Estonian Consumer Protection Board proposes that the obligation to publish truthful and unbiased opinions in news broadcasts be legislated for media service providers, the Head of the Department’s Information Society Service said on July 4, Helen Rohtla, reports ERR.
“The problem now is that some entrepreneurs, so to speak, operate under the guise of the media. Your goals may not have anything to do with providing versatile, reliable, and controversial media services. Their goal is to pursue personal interests or the interests of a certain political force or state.Rothla said.
The official did not offer criteria to evaluate the veracity and impartiality, but allowed the possibility of gathering the opinions of the participants of the media market and “different institutions”. The department representative pointed out that local media are vetted before they can broadcast, while foreign ones are not, so the responsibility for their rebroadcasting should be assigned to local providers.
Verification of sanctions and security threats, according to Rohtl, must be carried out in cooperation with state intelligence services. If the medium is on the relevant list, the provider should be obliged to stop cooperating with this medium.
Remember that Estonia banned the broadcast of the largest Russian TV channels on its territory and blocked the Internet portals of various state and news portals. Unwanted media are declared “propaganda media”, and on this basis the generally accepted theses on freedom of expression and pluralism of opinions do not apply to them.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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