Tallinn TV Blasts Opposition Leaders for Shunning Show
The long-running, partisan spat over the city-funded television channel Tallinn TV (TTV) took another turn for the ugly on September 21 when its chief lashed out at the heads of the City Council's opposition factions for refusing to appear on one of its programs.
A statement issued via the city's press office under the heading "Opposition Representatives Refuse Public Discussion" said that the channel was forced to cancel that day's edition of "Pealinna Pead" (Capital Leaders) due to "the ignorance of opposition parties."
TTV Editor in Chief Mart Ummelas said that the heads of the factions had sent written refusals to take part in the show.
"Therefore we are forced to call off the show and offer excuses, on behalf of those who did not turn up, to the renowned political analyst Rein Toomla," Ummelas said in the statement.
The program, which was to air at 19:00 local time the same day, will be replaced by a concert performance.
Opposition's refusal to take part in the show is not out of character. Members of Reform and IRL have routinely branded the channel as a taxpayer-funded propaganda tool for the Centre Party, which controls the City Council. They also refused to take part in a series of debates hosted by the channel in the run-up to March's parliamentary elections.
Toivo Jürgenson, head of the IRL faction in the City Council, told ERR News that his faction's reasons for not working with TTV had long since been made clear.
"This is not a normal media channel," he said. "We are not interested in propaganda."
Reform Party faction leader Õnne Pillak likewise said that her group had always followed the principal of not participating in Tallinn TV productions.
"The members of our faction have always been able to successfully address the public via private media and therefore do not see the need to use the services of Tallinn TV. We would rather see the channel closed and the financial means reassigned to improve the state of the pre-school education in Tallinn," she told ERR News in an e-mail.
Speaking to ERR News, TTV's Ummelas clarified that the channel had e-mailed the faction leaders invitations to take part in the show five days earlier, on September 16.
Ummelas said that TTV reporters would be present the next day's City Council meeting to ask opposition leaders to explain, on camera, the reasons for their lack of cooperation. The material, he said, would be used on the following week's edition of "Pealinna Pead."
When asked why he had planned the program around the opposition council members' participation without first confirming whether they were willing, Ummelas answered that the fundamental purpose of the show was to cover the City Council's activities.
Steve Roman