A new bill from the Ministry of Culture seeks to amend the Media Services Act to regulate the banning of retransmitting content from Russian and Belarusian propaganda channels, ERR reports.

Currently under consultation, the bill also aims to transpose the necessary standards for implementing the EU's European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) at the national level.

Amendments to the Media Services Act have been in the works for some time, with the first consultation period taking place in 2023-2024. However, the bill was withdrawn to address issues arising from the implementation of the EMFA, which had been adopted in the meantime.

Andres Jõesaar, a media adviser at the Ministry of Culture's Arts Department, told ERR that the processing of the law was put on hold while waiting for the adoption of the EMFA. The EU regulation was adopted at the end of last year, and will enter into force in August.

"We were waiting for the final adoption of this legal act so that we could introduce all the changes arising from the new regulation and our previous proposals in one go, rather than doing them piecemeal," he explained.

According to Jõesaar, the originally planned amendments weren't urgent enough that waiting for the European regulation to be finalized would have caused any problems.

The new bill is slated to grant the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) the authority to limit the broadcasting of hostile media services. The bill will also make changes to the regulation and categories of the country's television and radio licenses, as well as to radio license competition procedures.

Since the bill also incorporates the standards of the EMFA, it will clarify the concept of a media service, expand the protection of information exchange, establish a media ownership database as well as establish a requirement to provide information on state advertising expenditures.

Over time, the bill has gotten somewhat simpler as well.

"One part of it, concerning the retransmission of Russian and Belarusian propaganda channels, was a more pressing issue two or three years ago," Jõesaar acknowledged. "The TTJA did not have effective legal tools to prohibit the retransmission of propaganda or harmful channels in Estonia."

Two years ago, the TTJA's initial proposal to regulate media content for truthfulness and balance attracted significant negative feedback at the time.

A few years ago, the legislative intent for the bill included a proposal under which program retransmitters, such as cable TV companies and hotel networks, would have been required to disclose which channels they intended to broadcast, and the TTJA would have been able to decide which of them was prohibited from being broadcast.

Now, the TTJA is set to be granted the simpler authority to prohibit the broadcasting of propaganda channels.

"There will be no major control mechanism; they will be given the authority to limit [such channels'] transmission," the ministry adviser explained.

At the Ministry of Culture, Jõesaar acknowledged that defining the boundaries of what is considered media is difficult.

"If we were only talking about TV channels or specific web addresses, as currently sanctioned — i.e. if the owner is under sanctions, the channel cannot be broadcast — then it would be simple," he said. "But nowadays, influencers can also have large followings, and that information, disinformation, malicious information and propaganda spreads across various technological platforms — and we don't have the capacity to monitor all of them, because there are thousands of content providers."

The adviser clarified that the TTJA's control will be focused on limiting propaganda originating outside the EU.

However, the EU's EMFA more broadly addresses the protection of journalism within the EU, and this includes media content creators who operate primarily online.

"Media service providers also include online content uploaders for whom this is their primary economic activity," Jõesaar explained. "It doesn't apply to everyone who posts something somewhere, but to those for whom this is a profession, i.e. a source of income. Those podcasters, YouTubers, Instagram and TikTok influencers who are in this as a business activity — the media freedom regulation will apply to them."

The media freedom regulation will also require public sector institutions to make information about state advertising publicly available.


Estonian tech regulator blocks access to four more Russian websites
The bill proposes that businesses classified as operating in the media field under the Classification of Economic Activities in Estonia (EMTAK) be considered media service providers. These businesses would then be required to report the total amount spent on state advertising as a separate item in an appendix to their annual report.

The new bill will also change the local regulations for issuing radio licenses.

"Under the current rules, the Ministry of Culture sets additional conditions for radio licenses, such as the share of works by Estonian authors in the programming," Jõesaar noted. "With this amendment, all radio license holders will be required to play music by Estonian authors for at least 30 percent of daily programming — and 15 percent for foreign-language radio stations."

He noted that while current radio licenses have already been issued under these conditions, going forward, there will no longer be a need to specify them in each licensing competition, as the amounts will be set out in law.

While current legislation allows for the issuance of temporary radio licenses for special events, the ministry adviser noted that market participants were quite creative in utilizing temporary licenses to expand their existing broadcast programming.

"The same will apply to television too," he continued. "We simplified the license system, and now all market participants will have clearer rules, meaning that temporary broadcasting licenses will be subject to the same conditions as permanent licenses."

According to the bill, the number of license types will also decrease, as due to technological advancements, there's no longer any significant difference between a local and a nationwide license.

"Only the international license, for programming broadcast outside the country from Estonia, will remain," Jõesaar added.

The planned amendments are expected to enter into force on January 1 of next year.