These amendments would ensure independence, take into consideration European Union media norms and state aid rules, and recognize changes in the media and tech which have emerged since the domestic legislation was adopted 17 years ago.

The Estonian Public Broadcasting Act (ERHS) dates back to 2007 and dealt with the merger of Estonian Radio and Estonian Television, to form the present-day ERR.

Andres Jõesaar, media advisor at the Ministry of Culture, noted that the act will align legislation with EU regulations and establish a more detailed legal framework for ERR, enabling it to meet the high EU standards set for public service media in the EU.

These are: Being a reliable, politically independent source of balanced information supporting everyday life orientation; offering a platform for public debate which fosters democratic exchanges and promotes life; to create and provide freely accessible educational and entertainment media content across all major media platforms: radio, television, and online; and to lead media innovation and provide new media services, all serving the public interest.

The ministry, in tandem with an expert working party, says it has identified several areas needing revision, divided into four groups: Funding, the definition of public media services, an impact assessment on these new services, and the way in which ERR is governed.

With funding, the impending EU Media Freedom Act mandates that public broadcasting funding should be organized in a way that avoids the risk of undue influence from annual budget negotiations, ensures long-term budget predictability, and does not compromise its credibility or independence.

The current funding mechanism for ERR does not, the ministry says, meet this requirement.

The current system sees ERR funded annually via a political decision made late on in the year, i.e. the state budget process.

The Ministry of Culture has suggested that ERR's funding could instead be pegged to GDP or tax revenues to ensure better independence.

The ministry would also curb ERR's ability to accept project grants for content production.

A model used in Lithuania is proposed as an alternative.

In this, public media support is calculated based on a fixed percentage of excise taxes and personal income taxes amassed within the calendar year preceding the planned year of use.

In any case this model is now mandatory under the direct application regulation, in the interests of greater independence from decisions of government.

To fulfill the tasks and objectives set for ERR by the ERHS, the public service media provider is obliged to offer a wide range of informational, educational, and entertainment content.

The law will more concretely emphasize the duty to produce and direct other media content in addition to traditional radio and TV. The ministry says that sudies show that ERR's online portals are considered crucial by a significant portion of the less affluent demographic in Estonia, who may lack the means to subscribe to paid media outlets such as those offered by Postimees Grupp and Delfi/Ekspress Meedia.

Additionally, the ministry says ensuring the availability of free information is particularly vital from the standpoint of informing residents whose native language is not Estonian – ERR carries two portals in other languages, namely Russian and English.

Media innovation is a critical part of the development of a digital society, the ministry says, meaning that public broadcast media not only should but must be in the vanguard of innovation.

The proposed legal amendments will address this, including vai the appointment an independent media regulator to evaluate the market impact of proposed new media services from economic, cultural, and societal perspectives, the ministry says.

Adjustments hav also been suggested to ensure a balanced composition of ERR's supervisory board (Nõukogu), ideally to include equal representation from parliamentary factions and recognized experts in the field. At present there are three non-political expert members sitting on the supervisory board, along with one member for each of the political parties – currently six – represented at the Riigikogu.

Another governance-related proposal is to ensure that the editors-in-chief and managing editors have fixed-term contracts.

This, it is argued, would facilitate organizational adaptability and promote the emergence of new creative solutions.

The Ministry of Culture says it is seeking feedback on the ERR development plan from stakeholders and welcomes constructive suggestions and opinions from these, through to the end of this month, and via the Government's draft legislation information system (Valitsuse eelnõude infosüsteem).

The new EU act aims to, among other things, prevent major online platforms from arbitrarily restricting press freedoms, to require media to disclose its ultimate ownership, and bar the use of spyware against journalists, save for in "strictly defined cases."

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