Committee chair: Vooglaid now meets ERR supervisory board requirements
There are no further obstacles to Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) MP Varro Vooglaid sitting on public broadcaster ERR's supervisory board, Riigikogu culture committee chair Heljo Pikhof (SDE) says.
The committee is the confirm the new supervisory board members on Tuesday, she added.
ERR's supervisory board (Nõukogu) includes representatives from all six parties represented at the Riigikogu, along with three independent experts.
The recent entry into office of the XV Riigikogu meant that each party must nominate a supervisory board member, an MP from that party, which in EKRE's case is Varro Vooglaid.
This had met with controversy over independence concerns, given that Vooglaid chairs a self-styled family rights organization, which also operates a news portal, Objektiiv.
However, Pikhof said that the necessary measures had been taken to remove this obstacle.
Pihkhof said: "Varro Vooglaid has stated that the SAPTK supervisory board (SAPTK is the organization Vooglaid heads up-ed.) has opted to had over the Objektiiv portal and all aspects belonging to it to an NGO."
"NGO Objektiiv's application for registration has been submitted, while [Vooglaid] claims that he has not role in that NGO, either within its management organs or in terms of contractual relations, while he has also added in a written statement to me, that he has started the reorganization process," Pikhof went on.
Pikhof added that Vooglaid had also announced a solution would be found in relation to his participation in the "Fookus" broadcast.
"He has met all the requirements," Pikhof summed up.
Objektiiv provides audiovisual media services, meaning his relationship to it as SAPTK chair was an obstacle to sitting on the ERR supervisory board.
The other MPs on the supervisory board's new composition are: Marek Reinaas (Eesti 200), Tõnis Mölder (Center), Valdo Randpere (Reform), Raimond Kaljulaid (SDE), Priit Sibul (Isamaa), in addition to board chair Rein Veidemann and the other independent expert members.
Many large public and state bodies have supervisory boards organized along these lines. In ERR's case the supervisory board is wholly separate from the management board, headed by Erik Roose.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Aleksander Krjukov
