Estonian media come out against the proposed law

18th of March, six of the largest newspapers in Estonia had an unusual protest: three of them had their front pages almost empty, with the remaining three such having empty pages inside. In this way the leading Estonian media protested against the initiative of Ministry of Justice to push through parliament a law on protection of sources of information, which, as believed by many in Estonia, threatens freedom of speech in the country.

As reported by the Commersant, the six greatest Estonian newspapers published a short text on empty page: "This is the future of the press, if the Parliament would adopt the law proposed by Minister of Justice Rein Lang called the bill on the protection of sources 656 SE. The law will allow imprisoning journalists and investigative reporters; it will compel them to disclose the sources of information, and allow penalizing publications even before accusatory articles appear.

March 15 parliamentary legal committee passed the bill for first reading. Submitting the document, Minister Rein Lang announced that the new law is absolutely necessary for the legal regulation on the protection of sources of information. According to him, the journalist will be obliged to disclose the source when it comes to the criminal case for which the possible prison sentence is of eight years or more. The first parliamentary hearing on the bill is scheduled for April 7.

In the course of initiated by the Union of Estonian newspapers discussion the well-known expert in the field of mass media, professor at Ghent University Dirk Voorhoof said that the bill is contrary to European standards. His opinion is shared by Estonian journalists. Chief editor of the weekly Eesti Ekspress recalled that Estonia now has a very good image of a country which respects the freedom of the media: according to the rating of the international organization "Reporters without borders", it ranks sixth in the world, and in the list of Freedom House it divides the 14-17-th place .The Lang’s bill will strongly spoil these figures, as it severely limits the possibility of a journalists to protect their sources.

It is not the first time Justice Minister Rein Lang enters into severe confrontation against journalists. In 2006, he proposed to ban anonymous commentary on the Internet and track the commenters on the IP-addresses. Then the project failed because of negative attitudes of the media and the public on it.

This time many members of parliament stand against the Mr. Lang's new initiative. "We are dealing with the bill, which clearly threatens the freedom of speech and limits it - said the deputy of the opposition Social Democratic faction Hannes Rumm. - The European Court on Human Rights has consistently emphasized that the protection of sources of information is one of the guarantees of freedom of speech. Lang’s bill does not protect the source.” Even the leader of the member party of ruling coalition, the “Union of Fatherland and Republic" Mart Laar spoke against the bill. "If those whom must be protected by the law, say, that it, on the contrary, oppresses them, then there is a serious problem" - he said.