Changing Media in a Changing Society

Demokratizatsiya, Fall 2003 by Vihalemm, Peeter

The news criteria changed rapidly after 1991 : politics lost its appeal, and journalists tried to uncover any political scandal and corruption to catch the audience's attention. Commercialization of the media fed high interest in scandals. In the autumn of 1994, the media helped the opposition bring down successful reformer Mart Laar from the prime minister's office, using information about a secret deal of selling the leftover Russian rubles after the currency reform in 1992 to Chechen rebels. The fate of his political opponents was not different; the media severely attacked the leader of the opposition, Edgar Savisaar, for the illegal secret recording of other politicians' conversations, pushing him out of the interior minister's position in October 1995. The media also accused Prime Minister Tut Vahi of corruption, which caused his resignation in February 1997. When, in 1998 and subsequent years, Estonia was listed among the least corrupt postCommunist countries, this achievement was connected with the effects of the watchdog media. In a way, sensationalism of the commercialized media helped to keep political balance in the media.

In general, the Estonian media helped to create a climate of opinion, backing radical changes in society. The media promoted pluralism and open competition in politics and economy and supported the whole politics of shock therapy launched by the first reformist government. Estonian journalists overtly expressed their sympathies toward liberalization and took sides with radical reforms (at least until 2000) not because they were controlled or manipulated by right-wing politicians (as some think), but because this liberal policy corresponded to their own interests and convictions. One of the main reasons why liberal views dominated Estonian media almost throughout the 1990s was the rapid generational replacement that occurred in the journalistic staff. Similar to the quiet disappearance of the Estonian Communist Party from the political scene in 1991, the Soviet-era generation of journalists mostly retired or left to work in other areas after the privatization of their industry. Soon after, the majority of journalists'jobs were fdled with young people representing the generation of winners (Lauk 1996).

Because of the domination of pro-reform liberal views, the picture in the media during the initial period of radical reforms did not appear very balanced. From the viewpoint of participatory democracy, many big groups of society were not represented fairly in the public debate. The losers were not given much of a voice. In fact, they were marginalized as people unable to manage their own lives or who, for personal reasons, opposed rapid changes. As Russian troops still remained on Estonian territory, it was quite easy to label the views of people opposing shock therapy as dangerous for independence and to stigmatize left-wing politicians as supporters of the proMoscow policies. The majority of Estonians, according to the surveys conducted in the early 199Os, accepted radical reform as the only safe way to escape Russia's economic influence and achieve economic sustainability (Rose and Maley 1994; Rose 1995).