The Tallinn Transport Department had planned a Women's Day campaign on public transport that aimed to highlight the fact that a larger share of public transport users are women, while also stating that climate goals are not solely women's responsibility. Another campaign image called on passengers to intervene if they witnessed harassment on public transport.

On the evening before Women's Day, a city resident sent Deputy Mayor Kristjan Järvan (Isamaa) a photo of the campaign on public transport. Järvan then forwarded it to both the head of the Transport Department and the deputy head responsible for public transport.

"They were also seeing it for the first time. It seemed questionable. We decided that the campaign would be taken down the following day," Järvan said on the "Vikerhommik" radio show.

"In my opinion, Women's Day should be about honoring women, and using the occasion to say that men aren't meeting climate goals is simply inappropriate," Järvan said.

According to the deputy mayor, the campaign had not gone through any formal approval process. "This was a bit of an independent initiative," he said.

One of the campaign messages read: "Together toward a harassment-free public transport. Notice and help. Safe Women's Day!"

Järvan emphasized that public transport is a safe environment, and although there are individuals among commuters who do not follow the law, safety has improved. The city does not want to create the opposite impression — that parents need to think twice about whether to let their children use public transport.

"Indeed, if 40 to 50 percent of Tallinn residents use public transport, you can't claim that all harassers ride bikes and none take public transport. But this brings up the question of definitions — what exactly is harassment? Are we talking about harassment under the Penal Code or the Ministry of Social Affairs' definition, where basically anything someone else does that could be interpreted as offensive is considered harassment?" Järvan asked.

"For example, if Taavi is used to sitting in a certain spot on the bus, gets on and sees that Kirke is already sitting there and feels offended — does that mean Kirke is harassing Taavi? I think the Ministry of Social Affairs has ventured a bit into fairytale territory with its definition," Järvan said.

The city did not incur any additional costs for displaying or removing the campaign, he added.

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