Estonia pulls ERR law amendments from government meeting agenda

Amendments to Estonia's law on the Estonian Public Broadcasting corporation (ERR) had been expected on the agenda of the government's September 28 meeting, as confirmed the preceding Friday, but the item was removed by Monday.

Culture Ministry media adviser Andres Jõesaar said the removal came as a surprise, as he had been told the topic would be on the agenda, yet it was not there. He added that the ministry had submitted all required documents, and neither the Government Office nor the cabinet had explained to the ministry why the item was pulled.

Government Office communications adviser Yevgenia Vyarya told ERR the amendments were not approved because they need further work, adding that they could be expected to return to the cabinet's agenda on Thursday, though the Culture Ministry would be better placed to comment further. Jõesaar, however, said the ministry had not yet received any information about a need to revise the amendments.

According to the ministry adviser, the amendments' core content concerns platform neutrality and ERR's financing. The original task included defining a financing model and platform neutrality covering the television channel, radio stations and the web portal — effectively enshrining in law a situation that has existed in practice, since ERR has been actively present online for a couple of decades already.

The amendments also propose switching from the current one-year financing model to a four-year model, along with introducing fixed-term employment contracts for ERR's leading staff.

The current ERR law was drafted in 2005-2006 and took effect in 2007, when ERR was established as a single organization.