What's making the headlines? Absolutely nothing!
Yesterday's Estonian papers had blank front pages
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Estonian newspaper headlines made for easy reading yesterday... because there were none. Six dailies printed blank pages on Thursday in protest at a proposed new law that will require the papers to reveal confidential sources.
"This is the future of the Estonian press if the new media law is approved by parliament. It will allow the imprisonment of investigative journalists who protect their sources, abiding by the ethics of their profession," read a statement on the otherwise blank front page of Estonia's Postimees newspaper.
"Estonia's six major newspapers believe there is no alternative way to make politicians understand the draft legislation is not good. It significantly inhibits the freedom of the press", said chief editor of Postimees Merit Kopli.
Interior Minister Marko Pomerants laughed off the media protest. "The newspapers are overrating their importance. They have blank pages today. So what? Nothing has happened," the minister scoffed. He said that journalists are not "sacred cows" and should be punished with up to one year in jail for refusal to reveal their sources.
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip is adamant the planned legislation will go ahead, but critics of the proposed law say they will bring the battle to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if it is passed.
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