Baltic States Reece Dunker, Meredith eaton, Cambrie Schmidt

Media Climate

An open media climate was unheard of under Soviet rule. Leaders such as Stalin and Trotsky made it nearly impossible to disseminate media that was even slightly critical of the government. Once these countries gained their independence, media opened like it never had before.

Reporters Without Borders uses a ranking system to determine how open a countries media climate is. The organization uses a system that includes political, economic, legislative, social, and security factors. 180 countries are measured, ones with authoritarian leaders are towards the bottom and ones with an open democracy are towards the top.

Estonia ranks as the 4th most open media climate, up from its ranking of 15 in 2021. The security and lack of political pressure journalists feel is very high. And with such a high ranking, it comes as no surprise that no journalists have been killed or put in prison this year.

Latvia, while not as highly ranked, is still 22nd, maintaining their ranking from last year. Journalists experience a high level of security and lack of social pressure. Similar to Estonia again, no journalists have been killed or imprisoned.

Lithuania is ranked 9th, jumping all the way from 28th in 2021. High security, a lack of political and social pressure are major benefits that Lithuanian journalist receive. Like the other two Baltic States, there have not been journalists killed or imprisoned in 2022.

The Baltic States, although similar, have different laws on the books when it comes to laws involving media. Of the three, Estonia doesn’t have a mention when it comes to media rights. However, having been a part of the Soviet Union, these countries made it clear censorship will be non-existent.

Application of Media Laws

Estonia has the least to say about the freedom of media. In fact, nowhere within the Estonian Constitution does it mention anything regarding freedom of the press or media. It can be interpreted both ways, as in not having enough laws to prevent censorship or by not having any laws, it limits what the government do. Based on their Reporters Without Borders ranking, it seems like the government is uninvolved with media.

Latvia has a direct law in relation to freedom of press. Like many other democracies, Latvia doesn’t prohibit people from consuming any type of media. The constitution also strictly shuts down the idea of censorship. Of the Baltic States, Latvia’s Constitution speaks out the strongest against censorship.

Lithuania also directly prohibits any type of censorship. Unlike the other Baltic States, Lithuania includes a warning against monopolization of mass media. Of note, the warning against monopolizing is for all parties, whether political or public. In terms of the Baltic States, Lithuania is more strict than Estonia and less strict than Lithuania.

The Baltic States are a unique grouping of countries. Whether it be due to their time spent under Soviet control or their still rather new transition to democracy. Since they gained independence (both in the 1910s and 1990s), they’ve always shared a lot of similarities while maintaining key differences.

Section 1 Done by Reece Dunker

Current Media Issues and Popular Publications

Current Media Environment

In the Baltic states, media and journalism are pretty healthy and well respected. All three states, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, have strong freedom press index numbers coming in at 22, 9, and 4. However no country is perfect, and each region faces its own media issues.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, Estonia’s rating has gone up 11 points since last year, landing them at 4. Since 2021, no journalistic abuse has been reported as there have been no journalists killed or imprisoned. However, just because violence towards journalists is rare and their press freedom number is low does not mean journalists in Estonia do not face conflicts.

While media freedom is guaranteed by the constitution of Estonia, legislation protecting from defamation and private information disclosure continues to constrain this freedom. The World Press Freedom Index states that fear of defamation lawsuits has led to self censorship while private data protection laws have encouraged Estonian authorities to increasingly restrict media’s access to public information. This media freedom that was once guaranteed by the constitution no longer feels free. While journalists in Estonia rarely experience physical abuse or violence, they have been receiving a growing amount of online hate comments and threats.

In Lithuania, where the press freedom index number has risen 19 points from 28 to 9, journalists work in a relatively safe environment. Like Estonia, Lithuania has not had any journalists or media workers killed or put in jail since 2021. Their biggest conflict also comes from restriction of access to public information.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, “the media are relatively often confronted with refusal to provide public information without explanation.” Economically in Lithuania, local journalism has taken a hit due to systemic lack of funding. Due to Covid-19 media workers have seen a huge decrease in financial support. However, funding was not the only category to take a hit from Coronavirus.

The safety of journalists was affected when verbal attacks on media workers became common as they covered the restrictions due to covid-19 and protests began to take place. Similar to Estonia, aside from occasional verbal attacks, Lithuania is a relatively safe environment for journalists.

Out of the three Baltic states, Latvia has the lowest Press freedom index ranking, however it is still a very good rank, coming in at 22 for both 2021 and 2022. Latvia has a pretty safe and free environment for journalists and media workers, as they also have not had any journalists killed or put in prison since 2021. Latvia’s media conflict differs slightly from Estonia and Lithuania.

According to Media Landscapes, Latvia’s legal framework promises press freedom, confidentiality of journalistic sources and access to public information. In Latvia, journalists have wide access to public information, however, the transparency of the information is limited. This can be due to the pressure from Russia right next door.

Another conflict that both private and public media in Latvia faces is insufficient funding. With a lack of financial support, some of these local media begin to struggle. According to Media Landscapes, “A small market cannot ensure such conditions whereby the Latvian media can operate fully and develop without support mechanisms.” Like Estonia and Lithuania, Latvian journalists also deal with verbal abuse and threats when working in the media.

Each of the three countries that make up the Baltic states all have similar media environments. None of these countries struggle with journalistic abuse in a physical form or have to fight imprisonment. However, all struggle with public information access and transparency. While these governments claim to guarantee media freedom, it is still often a struggle for journalists to access the information they need.

Like many journalists all over the world, these media workers face verbal hate and threats, but that is typically as dangerous as it gets. Overall, the Baltic states have good environments for journalists with little media issues compared to other countries. Their freedom press rankings are an accurate representation of how journalism is treated in their countries.