This is an unexpected consequence of globalization: foreign investments in media companies have positive impact on their ethics. Take two of the Baltic States: Lithuania and Estonia. Two young democracies, two palpable desires for freedom. A visit of newsrooms in Vilnius and Tallinn shows the same demographics: the average journalist there is at least 10 years younger than in France or UK. As the (27 years-old) foreign editor of the main Estonian paper Postimees puts it : “…in this country, there is no such thing as old journalists”. In the two countries, senior journalists from the Soviet era have since been diluted in politics or public relations, clearing the stage for hungry young journalists.
Then come the differences. In Lithuania, the press remains largely owned by local investors. The result is a great coziness with the new power, once the enthusiasm of the immediate post-communist era has faded. Several local editors explained to me that to get a positive story printed about your business — or to get a negative one about a rival — you just have to pay. This doesn’t go as far as Russia, where, until a few years ago, the website Komsomolskaya’s Pravda (formerly dedicated to the Young Communists) had a price list for customized journalism.
Estonia is different. For cultural as well as geographical reasons, the country has always been under greater western influence. When its independence was re-declared in 1991, the new elite of the country welcomed foreign investors such as the Norwegian group Schibsted (1) and the Swedish Bonnier, which in the same stroke, imported their journalistic practices and ethics.
One weird thing, though. In a booming country like Estonia, you would have thought that a large number of well-educated young people would embrace ja ournalistic carrier. That’s not happening. I was told by the editor-in-chief of Postimeees, that among few dozens of last year’s graduates in communication from Tartu University, only one chose journalism. Amazingly enough, the shortage of journalistic talents could lessen the development of the press a young democracy like Estonia should be entitled to.
(1) Schibsted is the majority shareholder in the Eesti Media Group in Estonia. This group of companies publishes Estonia’s two largest newspapers, Postimees and SL Ohtuleht, as well as several local newspapers, and owns 50% of the Estonian Magasin Group, which publishes a number of magazines. Schibsted controls also two newspapers in Lithuania, LT and 15 minutes.
The booming E-Stonia
This 1.4m people Baltic state is actually one of the most wired countries in the world. Online banking, penetration of news websites like Postimees, uses of cell phone to pay for parking spaces, free wi-fi everywhere, the infrastructure is amazing. This makes also the country vulnerable to attack. In April 2007, when the country decided to distant itself further from Russia, riots triggered by Russian nationalists erupted. In retaliation, Russian hackers launched one of the most severe cyber attack suffered by any sovereign states.
> Wired magazine published an excellent account of the incident
> Speaking of hackers, read this story in ArsTechnica about the strong demand for multilingual hackers
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