"Vesti dnya" (Estonia) 12th of July 2007

THE TIMES OF FEAR HAVE COME

By ALEKSANDR CHAPLYGIN

People often fear to criticize the authorities openly LATELY people of Estonia are less and less eager to express any remarks that may cause resentment of the authorities in their own name. There is a sense that Estonia is getting back to the times when the authority was to be criticized only in a very close circle, and preferably in whisper. The times, when for political jokes, if not convicted, one would at least loose the job. However, “Vesti” found out that not everyone feels that way.

After the April events related to Tynismyaga, journalists of “Vesti” more and more often face the situation when their interlocutors agree to comment only if their anonymity guaranteed. They don’t even hide that the precaution is caused by the fear of persecution.

For example, preparing the article about the business related with Russia, we questioned over a dozen businessmen, who eagerly told us about the difficulties, emergent after the Bronze night. However, none of them agreed for his name to be mentioned in a newspaper. Business men did not hide their fear, that critics of the government will add to their Russian trouble the Estonian ones. We faced the same situation preparing the material about the prosecutor’s refusal to investigate the police activity during the Bronze night. At this time the lawyers were the cautious ones, who, again, agreed to comment only in conditions of anonymity.

After our sources, colleagues from other periodicals face the same problem: for instance, during the street questioning about the political issues, people refused to be photographed.

All of which is happening on the background of the increased mass media censure activity. First of all - in the Russian language mass media, as we have described in the yesterday edition, in the article “Censure at full throttle”.

DEMOCRACY IS STILL YOUNG

In the opinion of sociologist Andrus Saar, the fact that some people fear to criticize the authority is not an invention of the journalists. In particular, Saar does not include that caution of the businessmen is caused by the sense of danger.

“I do not think the businessmen fear direct economic damage, however, I would not exclude that they fear indirect damage,” – states the sociologist.

Saar thinks, however, that caution in comments is not related to the Tynismyaga, but rather a sign of immature democracy in general.

“On one hand, people eagerly express their opinion, sometimes insulting for someone, in anonymous comments in the Internet, and on the other – are being rather conservative, when it comes to stating their name” – gave his vision of the situation the sociologist.

Saar said that could not make any conclusions from the fact that mass media shows growing signs of political censure.

“We do not even know if the owners of the newspapers and internet portals are forced by Toompea, or the editors “filter” the information by their own initiative”,- explained Saar.

THE TRUTH IS NOT WELCOME IN ESTONIA NOWADAYS

Deputy of Riygikogu from the opposing Centrist party, Heymar Lenk, unlike Saar, directly relates the unwillingness of many people to criticize openly the authority, since the present government came to rule. Lenk thinks that people began to fear and that this fear originated from the massive pressure over the sociologist Juhan Kiviryakhka, who dared to question the legality of the government’s activities after the Bronze night.

“Lately, few are the people, who are ready to speak the truth about the situation in the country, - considers Lenk. – Any critics of the government is nowadays directly related to the anti-governmental activity, and to disagree Lisip – is the same as threaten the constitutional basis of the Estonian Republic.”

Lenk states that Estonia is entering once again into the times of overall silence, wherefrom we have struggled to get out in the end of 80s of the past century.

“Entrepreneurs are silent because they fear the government will brake their business, while the others – because they fear to loose the job”,- as Lenk describes the situation. By his words, even politicians start to fear to speak the truth, while they, by definition, are to notice the faults of the authority.

THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS NOT CANCELLED

At the same time, deputy of Riygikogu from the Governing reform party, Yanus Rakhumyagi, affirms that government in no case intents to limit the right of people to openly express their opinion, even if it criticizes the authority.

“Criticize as much as you like, but make sure that your critics does not cross the law, for instance, does not inspire fomentation of discord”, - explained Rakhumyagi. In his opinion, the freedom of speech is not cancelled in Estonia, which is witnessed, for example, by the Estonian press, which quite often criticize the government.

Commenting on the case of Kiviryakhka, he affirmed that a person expressing sharp opinion must always be ready for the consequences.

“If you fear – be silent, and it is not important who is in charge in the country, what matters is the personality of each individual”, - states Rakhumyagi, who affirms to have been more than once “under the fire” for the things he said and did.