Center Party received most media attention in September
In connection with September’s presidential elections, the amount of media coverage devoted to Estonia’s six parliamentary parties saw a significant jump (30-percent increase over August), of which the Center Party in particular enjoyed the most mentions.
According to a study commissioned by ERR’s online news portal and conducted by monitoring company Meedius, the Center Party was mentioned in a total of 1,289 news articles during the month of September, a slight lead over the Reform Party’s 1,182 mentions; following a large gap after the top two were the Social Democratic Party (SDE) with 624 mentions, the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) with 606 mentions and the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE) with 527 mentions.
News related to the presidential elections dominated the media coverage of each parliamentary party.
In addition to president-related news, the Center Party was also in the spotlight a great deal for internal party controversies (e.g. the letters of guarantee, replacement of the party's secretary general, disagreements between board members).
Presidential election-themed news likewise dominated coverage of the Reform Party, including a great deal of attention given to Marina Kaljurand’s decision to step down as Minister of Foreign Affairs and run for president and the related appointments of new ministers.
Meedius studies how often news mentioning Estonia’s political parties is published in Estonian print media and the country’s seven biggest online news portals. Mentions are also logged of the parties under various different popular forms, e.g. sotsid and SDE for the Social Democratic Party.
ERR has commissioned studies on party coverage in the news since early 2010.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla