According to Noel Curran, head of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), who recently visited Estonia, Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) stands out in Europe for the trust it enjoys from its audience. However, he noted that compared to its counterparts, ERR is severely underfunded.

Given the current security situation and the spread of disinformation, Estonia needs a strong public broadcaster now more than ever, Curran said.

"When funding depends on a government decision every year, that undermines independence. Because the decision they make on your funding may be that they didn't like your the coverage the last six months," Curran said.

"Because of the terrible inflation we're all feeling every day, our real funding is significantly lower than it was four or five years ago. Although the absolute numbers appear to be growing slightly, in practice we're at a point where, if we don't fix this issue — which I'm optimistic we can — we may be forced to shut down some services next year," said ERR board chair Erik Roose.

The review of the funding model is tied to amendments to the Public Broadcasting Act, which in turn are being driven by the European Media Freedom Act that entered into force last year. During a meeting with Minister of Culture Heidy Purga (Reform), Curran noted that some countries are already facing reprimands for violations of the regulation.

"The last thing we want to see is a modern democracy like Estonia called out in that way," said Curran.

According to Roose, all stakeholders understand the challenges, but given the current state of the national budget, it's difficult to make decisions.

Several potential future funding models are on the table. A Western European-style television or media license fee is not under consideration, but the so-called Lithuanian model is.

"It's tied to a specific portion of a given tax from the previous year — not the tax itself, but the scale of it. For example, in Lithuania, a percentage of personal income tax is allocated, so under that model you can already know a year in advance what the following year's budget will be. And of course, the second component is that the amount must be sufficient," Roose explained.

"These models have been discussed. We've looked at various options, including indexation, though we know that's not the best solution right now, especially when the government is trying to move away from indexation. So we've moved on to other options, and one of them is the so-called Lithuanian model. But it's still too early to go into detail. I'd like to present the idea to the minister of finance first," Purga said.

Purga plans to discuss ERR's funding options with the finance minister within the next two weeks.

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