Speaking to the newspaper Eesti Päevaleht about the cuts, she said that four areas will not see reductions in their funding: literature, the film repayment fund, major sports events and support for Russian language private media.

Sports events will be spared due to a decision made last year which allocates €3 million a year to support high international level competitions with great national marketing potential.

"Major events of this kind bring a significant number of foreign visitors to Estonia, stimulating the economy and regional development. It's a long-term decision that requires time to start having an impact. Bringing major events to Estonia takes years of work. This requires strong organizers, who in turn need the assurance that it's worth pursuing and planning these large-scale competitions," said the minister.

In total, sports events will be granted almost €6 million from three different application rounds in 2024.

One of the larger sums of money – €1,150,000 – was set aside for WRC Delfi Rally Estonia. Most of the grants are in the tens of thousands.

Russian-language private media unprofitable

The minister said funding for Russian language media content was spared due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia's information war.

"This places a special responsibility on the Estonian state and the need to ensure that individuals living here have access to accurate information. To achieve this, it is also necessary to support the capacity of local Russian-language private media to offer high-quality, reliable, and diverse journalistic content, bringing Russian-speaking residents of Estonia into a shared communication and information space," said Purga.

She said creating more Russian language content is of strategic importance

"At the same time, in the context of the media economy as a whole, the local Russian-speaking audience is not large enough to allow media houses to operate profitably," the minister added.

"In a situation where many Russian media channels have been banned in Estonia – 51 Russian TV channels were banned in Estonia in 2022 and access to 195 websites was blocked, compared to 53 and 307 respectively today – the state needs to strengthen clear alternatives in the local Russian-language information space," said Purga.

The ministry would not disclose readership numbers.

Since 2022, when Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine began, Russian-language private media has received €1 million a year from the Ministry of Culture's budget.

In 2024, Postimees Grupp and Delfi Meedia received grants of €300,000 each, Äripäev €212,200 and Põhjarannik €187,800.

Next year, the Ministry of Culture must make cuts of 5 percent in its administrative area, and 10 percent in total over the next three years.

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