Churches council concerned about apparent lack of 2022 state budget funding
The Estonian Council of Churches (EKN), an ecumenical organization, has sent a letter to the government expressing concerns over the fact that in next year's budget draft bill, a €50,000 allocation to support Christian media publications present in previous budgets is now missing.
EKN chief Andres Põder that in the state budgets from 2019, 2020 and 2021, €50,000 was allocated to various church media channels.
Põder noted that the support has been allocated to a total of 11 Christian media organizations (newspapers, radio and TV channels and magazines, in 2021.
"According to our knowledge, the 2022 state budget draft legislation doesn't contain any allocation for Christian media publications. We ask you, respected chairmen of government parties and factions, to consider drafting the additional support allocation for the 2022 state budget," Põder wrote.
He added that Christian media publications do not narrowly cover issues related to a specific denomination or solely to Christianity, but cover everything relevant to society at large, ranging from culture, to security, governance and international matters, including content for the Estonian diaspora.
"As confessional newspapers and magazines published in Estonia are available worldwide in both paper and as online publications, as are Christian radio programs available on the Internet, these publications also play an extremely important role in the global sense of Estonians in providing information about Estonian church and social life," Põder noted
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Editor: Roberta Vaino
