Estonia- a true media-populist state?

Umberto Eco, a well-known philosopher recently warned (The New York Times Magazine) about media-populism, that is characteristic to Italy and maybe some other countries.

Maybe it is less known that media-populism, as described by Eco, has been developing for almost a decade in Estonia, the remote European state that breaks the news only when it is occupied, freed or attacked. But let's have a closer look to this tiny country. Where 10% of the population or about 100 000 people are non-citizens, with limited rights, most of them lived in Estonia their entire life, but who are treated like the Black in the USA in the beginning of the 20th century. Because they are of Russian, or some other ex-Soviet origin. And, really, nobody cares, because it is so remote.

And it is as media-populist as a country can be. The media-market is divided and thus governed between Schibsted, a Norwegian media group and local Ekspress Group. They have made agreements to co-operate, have mutual businesses, that publish and print almost all the magazines and newspapares in Estonia. And the combined group supports entirely the leading Reform Party. The head of Schibsted in Estonia, Mart Kadastik is a close friend to Andrus Ansip, the prime minister and head of Reform Party. Kadastik and the Schibsted Group help Ansip to deliver only good news about the government. And never criticize. There have been several issues about Ansip's dark past as a Communist leader, about his secret girlfriends, but all the stories have been dropped. The media in Estonia has become true servant of the government, thus enabling the government to overrun public opinion. And even the parliament, as described by Eco.

The only independent newspaper is the business daily Äripäev, bublished by Bonnier Group, but it is a niche publication, has low circulation and marginal influence on mainstream media and overall public opinion.

What is even more worrying, the true info about Estonia doesn't cross the borders. As long as foreign correspondents that have been assigned to Estonia rely only on local press. Technically they act as translators. And this local press is heavily biased.