Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Telecomunications

The Estonian government discussed at its Thursday evening cabinet meeting the establishment of a Russian-language TV program, and gave its support to it; to make the final decision, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Culture need to find financing sources for around EUR 4 million per year.

Ruussaar stressed that it will not be a propaganda channel and does not plan to compete with big channels financed by Russia.

He said that for 4 million euros, the channel will get around 20 hours a week of originally produced programme and programme bought from elsewhere that is partly supplied with voiceover, partly with subtitles. "This will be largely at the best viewing time – mornings and evenings – a full scale television," he said, adding that the contents will be reflected on the Internet and can be watched afterwards too, meaning that it is not just a TV channel.

The aim of the channel is to speak about how people live in Estonia; the channel is also an additional possibility for language training to Estonian speaking population.

"The content of the channel will be prepared by Russian journalists, will be edited by Russian journalists who speak good Russian language, who know Russian culture, and who live in the European Union. This is not a propaganda channel. I am not going to lead a propaganda channel," he added.