Newspaper Association Responds to Chinese Propaganda Incident
Responding to a newspaper insert paid for by the Chinese Embassy in Tallinn, the head of the Estonian Newspaper Association, journalism professor Mart Raudsaar, stressed that papers are responsible for all their content, and not just editorial material.
In the September 9 issue of Postimees, the newspaper insert celebrating 20 years of bilateral ties between Communist China and Estonia praised the situation in Tibet in a propagandist style.
Full of government propaganda, the Chinese Embassy's publication caused a stir in the media with headlines such as "Tibet: 60 years after the peaceful liberation." The newspaper issue itself did not take up the topic of Tibet.
Such content should be clearly marked as an advertisement and should say who paid for it, Raudsaar said, so that it is not mistaken as neutral reporting. "I shouldn't have to investigate with a magnifying glass,“ Raudsaar said.
"As a representative of the Newspaper Association, I should say that it's every newspaper's own business what they publish, but as a citizen I would call attention to the fact that [Estonia] was also once occupied," Raudsaar added.
Postimees editor-in-chief Merit Kopli told uudised.err.ee that the embassy-funded articles were part of an advertisement and that the editorial staff is in no way connected.
The newspaper insert appeared a few weeks after the Dalai Lama's visit to Estonia, during which the religious leader met with several Cabinet ministers and, albeit informally, with President Ilves, drawing a heated response from Chinese officials, including the cancellation of a state visit by an Estonian minister.
But the punishment seems to have been a symbolic short-term warning, as a statement released by the Estonian Foreign Ministry on September 9 said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had again called for friendly relations in a letter.
Ott Tammik