Mayor of Tallinn Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) told Tuesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" (AK): "This was previously carried out as part of the green capital initiative, but no new decisions in this context have been planned."

"Winding up city media production will save the capital about two million euros annually, which we plan to allocate to cover the needs of other key sectors, primarily in education," Ossinovski continued.

This means a total of 38 workplaces will be eliminated from July 11, rising to 40 positions by August 31.

Since some of the posts to be removed are currently vacant in any case, the net loss of city media department jobs, plus the city communications director's position, is set to be 36.

The positions fall under the departmental director's office, web editorial, the Pealinn and Stolitsa free newspaper editorial teams, and the TV production, video, and technical editorial teams.

The city media departmental head position and the city communications directorial post will both be removed in August, as well.

The current communications director in Tallinn is Kirsti Ruul, while the city media department is headed by Kristiina Rossmann.

The communications department will be placed under the supervision of the city of Tallinn secretary, and Pealinn and Stolitsa, the Estonian- and Russian-language local free papers, are to be wound up.

Kirsti Ruul said that long-term cooperation with radio stations broadcasting city news is to continue, though further plans are ultimately down to the new director.

This includes a long-standing cooperation with Kuku Radio for Tallinn news, and the continued broadcast of Russian-language Tallinn news is also broadcast, she said.

Mayor Ossinovski has ruled out buying spots within the content marketing sections of private media channels for city news, however.

Ruul also said that although the original plan was to close the city media by May 31, the process took longer, hence the formal closure taking place on July 11, though actual news production will end on the last day of this month, and the last broadcasts airing that day too, she said.

From July 11, 21 positions will remain in the communications department.

A public competitive process is to be announced to find a new head for the communications department, the City of Tallinn announced.

The development follows the exit from office in Tallinn of the Center Party, after nearly 20 years in city government, and the advent of the SDE-Isamaa-Reform-Eesti 200 coalition in the capital.

In addition to the costs associated with running such a large city media department, concerns have been raised about the extent to which it propagandizes, particularly in the current security situation.

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