Media Responsibilities

Impact, role and responsibility of media companies in the society

Ekspress Grupp is the leading media group in the Baltic States and therefore, it plays a significant role in promoting the society. The Group’s periodicals are the main companies that shape the public information space in its three home markets. Besides, being a company of a considerable size, the Group has the responsibility to manage all group companies in an ethical and accountable manner, and create independent, professional and reliable journalistic content. Group companies need to be managed in an honest, law-abiding and ethical manner – it is the basis of trust by the parties related to the Group and the general public.

An agreement has been reached within the Group concerning the areas and activities embodying social impact and responsibility.

We wish to be:

Independent and modern content creator

- Always accessible through convenient and attractive digital information solutions
- Content to be created is reliable, journalists are independent and ethical

Attractive employer

- Retention and training of professional staff
- Equal treatment and valuing of diversity

Responsibly-managed company

- Open and honest management
- Setting and fulfilment of the goals related to sustainable development

Promoter in society

- Supporting open and participatory democracy
- Addressing topics of major social impact

We raise important topics in the society, draw attention to them, and talk honestly and openly about them.

Journalism plays a clear role and we need to fulfil it. We definitely want to offer balanced journalism and it means that we need to select which topics and how to cover them. High-quality content and provision of balance is becoming more important and yet a more complex challenge.

– Mari-Liis Rüütsalu, CEO of Ekspress Grupp

Our approach to
responsible journalism

Journalistic ethics starts with independence

Journalism needs to be independent and free. The work of journalists and periodicals should not be influenced by business interests, political links, personal relations or gains, bribes or any other benefits. The principles of balanced journalism are followed in all group companies. Various parties are allowed to express themselves and counter-arguments and if necessary, excuses, are permitted. The sources of presented information are always verified. Each journalist is responsible for source and confidentiality protection. In case of sensitive topics, the line of ethics should be perceived.

Standing up for credibility and freedom of speech

An ongoing and increasingly sharper polarisation of the society will increase pressure on media houses to create and present reliable and high-quality journalistic content on time. Implementation of these takes will help ensure news readers both today and tomorrow.

Review of message boards by human moderation

In case of online publications, comment sections play a key role since they enable readers to express their views on issues that they consider relevant. The media outlets of Ekspress Grupp promote the use of comment sections, i.e. message boards by registered and logged in users. For removal of improper comments, human and machine moderation is used.

It seems to us that trust in media has no fallen, but it is the entire chain of attention that has changed and information has become fragmented. The worldview is impacted by who reads what and in which channels. For example, today young people are not the users of traditional media.

- Tarmo Paju, Editor-in-chief of Delfi

Hate speech influences the work of journalists

At the times of crisis, the society’s various sore points raise to the surface. For this reason, the media’s task to offer balanced and fair information is even more important. When tensions grow, confrontation between opposing parties may become hostile as we witnessed in 2021 that brought an increase in the number of both verbal and physical attacks against the editorial offices of media houses and journalists. In social media, there were calls for physical attacks on Delfi journalists.

Clear boundary between journalism and content marketing

Content marketing continues to grow as a format and sets requirements and restrictions for all media houses, including the Group's media outlets, to ensure credibility and transparency. The Group is firmly convinced that journalistic content of periodicals must not be influenced by the interests of advertisers, content marketing or the organisation of the Group's own commercial events. The line between advertising and media editing should be clear, content marketing and other content shown for a fee should be clearly identifiable and highlighted accordingly.

Media creates value by raising important topics

Media’s responsibility is to cover relevant and problematic topics. It is also an opportunity to highlight and draw attention to the society’s sore points and key processes that need to be changed, and impact them in a positive direction.

According to the latest surveys, the coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the global journalism. The latest annual report of the Reporters without Borders (RSF) reveals that that the situation has sharply deteriorated and journalism is being blocked, either in full or partially, in two-thirds of the 180 observed countries. According to the global press freedom indices, the media in the Baltic States is free – in the chart for 2021, Estonia ranked 15th (2020: 14th), Latvia 22nd (2020: 22nd) and Lithuania 28th (2020: 28th). The ranking of Latvia and Lithuania did not change while Estonia slipped by one spot.

Fact-checking assumed a new meaning in the year of the crisis. At the start of the corona pandemic, there were a lot of so-called half-facts and lies, pseudoscientists and doctors popped up. The fact-checking section of Delfi grew strongly. We understood that one needs to be careful when publishing certain facts or leave them out altogether. If there is just a quarter of a lie in a sentence, we cannot publish it.

- Urmo Soonvald, Editor-in-Chief of Delfi and Eesti Päevaleht

Major topics in 2021

How we transformed the society through raising important topics

Revelations published in Õhtuleht cost the Minister of Education her job

Õhtuleht published several articles about the former Minister of Education and Center Party member Mailis Reps who was forced to resign after their disclosure of her misuse of power. Reps also had to step down as the party’s deputy chairman and head of the party’s MP group, and was not allowed by her party to run in the local elections in 2021.

Negligent use of public funds

Eesti Ekspress revealed the unexpectedly careless attitude of the then Prime Minister Jüri Ratas towards the state wallet at the highest level.

Experiment proved that package waste collected by consumers is incinerated instead of recycled

Maaleht and Eesti Ekspress proved in an experiment that although the state claims that package waste sorted by people end up being recycled, most of them are actually incinerated. There are different solutions available on state and company levels, but they are not implemented because of financial reasons. All this is further eroding consumers’ motivation to sort waste.

National forest statistics are widely inaccurate

Õhtuleht investigated in its articles the situation in Estonian forests and the role of the State Forest Management Center. Analysis of data proved that state statistics on forestry is wrong.

Payment of sickness benefits to cancer patients continues

Õhtuleht disclosed a case where the National Library had laid off an elderly woman who had a cancer diagnosis and had been on sickness leave for almost a year. The layoff ended the payment of her sickness benefit, because civil servants interpreted the law differently. After Õhtuleht intervened, Health and Labor Minister Tanel Kiik ordered to continue payments of the sickness benefit to the woman in spite of her layoff.

Disease does not care about age

In November, Delfi Latvia published an article about how a 33-year-old man who refused to vaccinate died because of coronavirus. The article created a heated debate in the society and encouraged people to vaccinate.

We raised the debate on domestic violence in Latvia

Delfi Latvia published an article about a violent art critic who had harmed several girls. The article triggered a heated public debate about family violence.

Lithuanian railway company schemed to keep trade flowing

Delfi Lithuania reported that the Lithuanian state rail freight company AB Lietuvos Geležinkeliai had made a prepayment to one of the world’s biggest fertilizer manufacturers, Belarussian company Belaruskaliji, for haulage of fertilizers although this would have violated the new US sanctions. The Lithuanian government announced that it was ready to resign because of the scandal, but remained in office.

We understand our role in the fight against the dissemination of fake news and propaganda, and this is becoming more and more important. The outcome of all this hard work was the title of the best European lie detector assigned to Delfi Lithuania.

- Vytautas Benokraitis, CEO of Delfi Lithuania

Our rewards in 2021

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Estonia

In March 2021, the winners of the competition "Journalism Awards 2020" of the Estonian Association of Media Companies were announced. It included several employees and periodicals of Ekspress Grupp:

The journalists of Ekspress Meedia received the three highest press awards granted by the Estonian Association of Media Companies. Holger Roonemaa from the investigative editorial staff of Ekspress Meedia was named as the journalist of the year, Greete Lehepuu from Eesti Ekspress was named as the young journalist and Rein Raudvere from Maaleht received the lifetime award.

In the category of opinion articles in national newspapers, Ann-Marii Nergi received the award for her article published in Eesti Päevalehe LP on 4 July "JOURNALIST'S OPINION | Ann-Marii Nergi: A Prison Sentence for Covering a Court Hearing? Please Let Us Object!", where she wrote about how journalists are excluded from important court hearings using a legal pretext which courts willingly use, and for the article published in Delfi Ärileht on 4 December titled "The Victory of the Press. The Decision of the Riigikogu: It was a Mistake to Prohibit Coverage of the Hearings Related to the Port", where she wrote that the Supreme Court agreed with Eesti Päevaleht in that the public interest in the court case of the Port of Tallinn and corruption crimes in general is always larger, therefore, the arguments for prohibiting them should be very substantial. After a year and half in various court Instances, the Supreme Court also annulled the coverage prohibition related to the hearings of the Port of Tallinn.

The winner of the feature article category was Toivo Tänavsuu for his article published in Eesti Ekspress on 12 February "The Last Days of Agu Uudelepp: "I Gathered All My Strength to Say Good-bye to my Children". Doctors told Agu Uudelepp who had lung cancer that his life expectancy would be one year, but he lived for four years. Tänavsuu wrote about what gave the head of the family so much strength and hope.

The winner of the major newspapers for coronavirus coverage is "Tartu Corona Madman's Funny Adventures in Estonia", published in Eesti Ekspress on 5 August which is a board game allowing one to travel through Estonia, infecting as many people as possible with the coronavirus. It was designed by Tarmo Rajamets and its illustrator is Heiki Ernits.

The winner of the open group of major newspapers is Tarmo Rajamets for the article published in Eesti Ekspress on 25 March "We'll Get a Pay Rise!„ The layout humorously referred to the pay rise. Of the major newspapers, the monetary top prize was awarded to the same page of Eesti Ekspress in the design competition.

The winner of digital articles is the article published in Eesti Päevaleht "We Could Laugh and Cry. The Drama Theatre 100", written by Liisi Viskus, Imbi Võrel, Anna Plukk and Mart Nigola. The article looks back at the theatre's colourful past with exciting multi-media solutions.

The award for the best feature photo was given to Stanislav Moškov from Õhtuleht for his photo series "The National Ballet in Self-Isolation".

Latvia

Delfi project “Kod.lv” won the award of the Latvian Association of Journalists for the best minority language project. In total, eight Delfi content projects were nominated. “Kod.lv” is a multimedia project of the journalists of Rus.delfi.lv that aimed to ”decipher” Latvians on what influences them (music, funeral traditions, games, impact of Latvian cinema, etc.)

For the first time ever, a Delfi Latvia project won an award at the creative and advertising competition Adwords. Charitable project “Strengthen the Strong” (“Stiprini stipros”) won the second prize in the category of corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

Delfi's journalist Laine Fedotova was nominated for the title of Young Journalist 2021 of the Latvian Association of Journalists.

At the Pan-Baltic marketing conference Baltic Brands Forum, Delfi Latvia won the award for being the most loved media brand in the Baltic States.

Lithuania

At the festive ceremony held to celebrate its 21st anniversary, Delfi Lithuania awarded the Titans prize to people who have broken stereotypes with their personal example and attract attention to key public phenomena and events. The recipients included a journalist and political commentator Kęstutis Girnis for his extensive contribution in covering the challenges facing the Lithuania society, and Aukse Mickienė, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases in the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences for her self-sacrificing work.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance organised a competition to select the best press coverage on the European Union investments in Lithuania with the aim of analysing and increasing the efficiency of the use of the EU structural funds. In 2021, Delfi journalist Edgar Savickas won the award.