Polarised television audiences. The outcomes of the Estonian and European audiovisual media policies

Andres Jõesaar

doi:10.15388/zt/jr.2015.8.8840

Abstract

The European Union’s (EU) liberalisation of media policies and its content quality bias towards economic efficiency has resulted in a situation where, in some small markets like Estonia, the audience is divided into two parts. The Russian-speaking audience in Estonia mainly follows Russian state TV channels, and the Estonian-speaking audience watches Estonian television channels. This has happened even though the EU media policy should ensure freedom of information, diversity of opinion and media pluralism. Findings from the Estonian case study show that despite the noble aim of the EU media policy, Estonia has two radically different information fields: Estonian-language media promotes European values, and Russian state media, enjoying high popularity among the Russian speakers, promotes ‘Putin’s values’.The question is whether the EU legal instrument — Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMSD) — is an efficient tool when disinformation from third countries is disseminated with the aim of gaining a political influence over the EU member states’ citizens. The recommendation is that the AVMSD should be revised in a way that prevents unfair competition directed from third countries and tools should be developed to compensate for market failures.

Highlights

This article argues that the Estonian government’s ‘idealisation’ of market forces — supported by the European Union media policy, which is driven by common market ideology — does not take into account media companies’ actual capability to provide a large range of media services and limits the offering of quality local content to all groups in society
The European Union’s (EU) liberalisation of media policies and its content quality bias towards economic efficiency has resulted in a situation where, in some small markets like Estonia, the audience is divided into two parts
There is no mutual understanding about the role and possible impact of the Russian language television programming, but the fact is that Russian television channels enjoy a significant popularity among the Russian-speaking audiences (Saar Poll, 2104; Seppel, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

This article argues that the Estonian government’s ‘idealisation’ of market forces — supported by the European Union media policy, which is driven by common market ideology — does not take into account media companies’ actual capability to provide a large range of media services and limits the offering of quality local content to all groups in society. Until recently, this has been interpreted mainly as an economic issue, but the events in Ukraine and the increasing wave of Russian propaganda has put this issue in a different light, falling under the national security domain. By whom and to what extent television programmes for the Russian-speaking audiences in EU member states are created is a political issue which is influenced by internal and external security questions, overall economics and by EU media policy, and this debate has strong historical roots

Population changes from Soviet times to present

Criticisms of the AVMSD

Findings

Conclusions