The videos, shot by influencer Karl-Gustav Kurn last month, are currently being investigated by the committee to see if he was paid to promote the minister. The ministry covered Kurn's travel expenses during the visit. Oviir told Wednesday's Vikerradio program "Uudis+" she had not watched all of them.

"To the extent that I and our committee members have seen, we would say that there was also a fairly significant element of what could be seen as the promotion of a particular politician. This has not been denied by the young man himself. He has also said that he took the opportunity to open up Margus Tsahkna as a person," Oviir said.

"He was actually very positively surprised, even delighted, by our foreign minister, and that's OK. But politicians have to understand that under the Political Parties Act, because they play a very important role in our democracy, they are subject to higher standards.

"If it is a case of a young man accompanying a politician and giving him a personal promo, then the politician should have paid for it out of his own expenses."

Oviir said the committee sees a clear difference between journalists and influencers and these differences must be highlighted.

"In the case of journalism, there is a professional education, there is a code of ethics, there is also, very importantly, editorial freedom. There is no direct prescription that you have to do this kind of work," she said.

"It's a bit different for influencers. If you look at the job of a guidance manager in general, it's more content marketing. And content marketing has different rules."

Content marketing comes with a specific set of requests that the client orders.

"It is possible to check whether the contract was very specific about what was expected. And then there is the question of whether it has been delivered. If it wasn't in the contract, then we can only look at what was actually done, or what has been made public," the chairman said.

In this case, Kurn was not asked to create specific content, ERR pointed out.

Oviir said the commission has not yet decided if the minister will have to refund the ministry.

"It could come to that. But we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves. All decisions are made by the commission. After we have received the necessary information, we will review it in committee. Each member of the committee can form his or her own internal opinion, and then we will make a decision on how to proceed," she said.

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