No airBaltic campaigns to Estonians

Latvian airline airBaltic announced today that it was going to temporarily exclude Estonia from its sales campaigns because of the ongoing dispute with the Estonian consumer protection authority.

The airline said that its upcoming sales campaigns will temporarily exclude flights from Tallinn and Tartu until airBaltic receives clear guidelines from the Consumer Protection Board on such campaigns.

Jānis Vanags, Vice President of airBaltic, said in comment that the airline would like to receive full and clear guidelines from the Estonian customer watchdog on such sales campaigns. “But we do not want to have a situation in the future where our Estonian customers are the only ones in the EU to receive confusing messages from their customer watchdog about airBaltic’s sales campaigns,” said Vanags.

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Estonia 9th with press freedom

Estonia is in a tie with Ireland in places 9-10 in the Press Freedom Index 2010 published by the Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres – RSF) on Wednesday and ranking 178 countries.

Last year, Estonia was in sixth place in the RSF scoreboard of nations with 0.5 points. This year the country was given two points. The bigger the number of points, the lower the country is ranked. Several countries share first place in the index again. This year it is Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. They have all previously held the first place since the index was created in 2002. Austria follows in seventh place with 0.5 points and New Zealand in eighth place with 1.5 points, ahead of Estonia and Ireland that both got two points.

Places 11 to 13 went to Denmark, Japan and Lithuania, which received 2.5 points each. Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta were tied in places 14 to 16 with four points, Germany was 17th with 4.25 points, Australia 18th with 5.38 points, Britain 19th with six points, and the United States 20th with 6.75 points. Latvia is in a tie with Trinidad and Tobago in places 30-31, and 8.5 points, while Russia was given 49.9 points and 140th place in the table. At the bottom of the list was Eritrea with 105 points.

In recent years, RSF has drawn particular attention to the three countries that always occupied the last three positions – Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan. This year, a bigger group of ten countries – marked by persecution of the media and a complete lack of news and information – are clumped together at the bottom. The press freedom situation keeps on deteriorating in these countries and it is getting harder to say which is worse than the other. RSF said it was worth noting that, for the first time since the start of the index in 2002, Cuba was not one of the 10 last countries this time.

Source: estonia.eu

Orkla Group companies market Kalev products

Several companies of the Norwegian Orkla group market products of the Estonian Kalev Chocolate Factory in the Baltic countries, Russia and the Nordic countries.
Kaido Kaare, CEO of Kalev Chocolate Factory, told BNS that in order to increase export volumes Kalev had started to co-operate with several companies of the Orkla Group. “Our most important export target countries are the Baltic countries, Russia and the Nordic countries.”
Kaare said that Kalev had launched co-operation with the Finnish Panda sweetmeats producer. “In the framework of that co-operation, Panda markets Kalev’s products in Finland and Kalev respectively Panda’s products in Estonia.”
In the St. Petersburg area of Russia, Kalev launched co-operation with Krupskaya, a company in the Orkla group. “Via Krupskaya’s contacts Kalev has wider opportunities to get its products into the assortment of big Russian retail chains.”
He said that Kalev had established its first contacts also with K’oKo’, a company of the Orkla group operating in the Czech Republic.
From November 1 Spilva, a fruits and vegetable processor in the Orkla Group, will take over Kalev products’ distribution, sale and marketing operations in Latvia.
Orkla acquired Kalev Chocolate Factory this May.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonia switched to digital television

Leaders of Estonian television stations and members of the digital distribution government committee Thursday morning at 5 a.m. turned off old analogue television transmitters and the whole country switched to digital program distribution.
According to the TNS Emor pollster, 44 000 households or 8% of all households still viewed analogue television in Estonia at the beginning of June.
From 1 July all Estonian television transmitters will stop transmitting analogue television and television programs can only be viewed digitally via an ordinary aerial. All those who received the television picture by an ordinary aerial and saw only three Estonian television channels until the present must now acquire a digibox or a new digital television in order to view programs. It is not necessary to accede to any service provider for digital reception of the free Estonian television channels (ETV, Kanal 2, TV3, ETV2, Kanal 11).

Source: Estonian Review

Estonia switched from analog to digital TV

Estonian completed full transition to digital television and switched off all analog TV transmitters this morning, writes aripaev.ee

With a digital set-top box and a standard areal, the public can view five domestic TV channels ETV, ETV2, TV3, Kanal 2 and 11 in digital for free. Besides, also the commercial-free Neljas program and MTV Estonia are available for viewing, out of Estonian channels.

According to a regulation of the European Union, analog television must be switched off in all EU member statess by 2012.

With the exception of about a hundred households, the whole Estonian territory is now covered by digital television signal.

Jüri Pihel, head of the transition to digital television commission attached to the ministry for economic affairs, said yesterday that of 570,000 households, about 20,000 households still had analogue receives.

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Drink producers fight over brand name

One of Estonia’s largest beverage makers A. Le Coq that belongs to Finland’s Olvi Group is claiming six million kroons from large Swedish alcohol wholesale trader V&S Vin & Sprit AB, writes aripaev.ee

Back in 2007 the Swedish company filed in court  a claim against A Le Coq’s long drink brand CHILL, saying that it was similar by name to its wine brand CHILL OUT which it had been selling since 2003. First-instance court ruled in favour of V&S Vin & Spirit and ordered the Estonian company to stop selling the product and destroy the seized stocks of 47,000 cans of CHILL at the presence of a court bailiff.

However, the circuit court ruled in favour of the Estonian company. After the supreme court decided not to consider the dispute, A Le Coq filed a claim in the amount of 6 million kroons of which about half is lost sales.

Source: BBN

National Broadcasting plans a news website in English

After some short media debate on the topic of Estonian news written in English this February, the Estonian National Broadcasting (Eesti Rahvusringhääling – ERR) now replies with a plan to begin publishing news written in English on its website by this summer.

As to the new development plan 2011-2014, ERR wants to launch a new website news.err.ee which shall be one of the most important web portals on Estonian news in English. The deadline shall be June/July 2010.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet has previously moaned the absence of constant flow of Estonian news in English.

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ERR.ee

Estonia aspires to join group of leading innovative nations

According to the newly published final report of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), Estonia has risen to 12th place for its innovation in 2009.

With this ranking, Estonia is positioned along with Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia in the innovation followers group, which is only one step down from the innovation leaders group.

In first place on the Innovation Scoreboard for 2009 is Sweden, followed by Finland and Germany. Great Britain and Denmark also belong to the leader group. Estonia is trailed in the scoreboard by the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Latvia is in the second-to-last position on the scoreboard.

Estonia’s success has been supported primarily by the increased readiness of companies to invest and the increase in utilizing innovation. While on the 2008 scoreboard Estonia was still below the EU average with its innovation indicators, according to this year’s indicators Estonia has surpassed the average.

“This is an outstanding outcome, because in the 2007 final report it was predicted that it would take 10 years for Estonia to reach the middle group,” said press spokesperson for the Ministry of Economics and Communications Piret Järvis.

In compiling the EIS, indicators regarding educated and skilled human resources are observed and compared among nations. The state’s activeness in supporting innovation and other opportunities for innovation are observed, as are the readiness of companies to invest in innovation and the readiness of businesses to co-operate in the name of innovation amongst themselves and with the public sector. A score is also given regarding intellectual property.

The number of companies that have brought innovative products or introduced something innovative within the company is also observed. A score is also given for how much innovation has affected economic development, for example in creating jobs or influencing export.

The European Innovation Scoreboard has been compiled since 2001. The scoreboard observes the innovation indicators of all 27 European Union member states.

Source:  http://www.proinno-europe.eu/sites/default/files/page/10/03/I981-DG%20ENTR-Report%20EIS.pdf

China’s state radio launches Estonian website

China’s state-owned radio station China Radio International (CRI) launched on Monday Estonian and Lithuanian websites.
The new websites, http://ee.radio86.com and http://lt.radio86.com, will offer a huge amount of video, radio programmes, photos and information that mainly focus on Chinese business, culture and travel, the news agency Xinhua said.
CRI currently has websites in 61 languages and 18 online radio stations.
“The State Council Information Office and embassies of related countries in Beijing sent congratulations on the launching of the new websites, praising CRI’s efforts and achievements in promoting mutual understanding between the Chinese people and their counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania, while building up channels for international exchanges and exploring cooperation between Chinese and foreign media outlets,” CRI said on the newly-opened website.

Source: Estonian Review

Postimees emerges as biggest newspaper in Baltics

Available data on newspapers’ print runs show that the Estonian daily Postimees prints a greater number of copies on workdays than any other daily newspaper in the Baltic countries.
According to data gathered by the Estonian Newspaper Association from printing plants, Postimees was published in 59 800 copies on average in January. Daily print runs of Postimees ranged from 57 000-58 000 copies on workdays to 73 000-74 000 copies on Saturdays.
The largest daily newspaper in Lithuania, the tabloid Vakaro zinios, was printed in 50 366 copies on the average on Thursdays, its smallest weekly print run. As many as 153 266 copies were printed on Saturdays, when the paper comes out with a number of supplements, according to figures released by the Lithuanian newspaper for January. Given the big share of newsstand sales the figures for different days vary a lot in the case of the Lithuanian paper.
The second biggest newspaper in Lithuania, Lietuvos rytas, had an average print run of 44 242 copies on Wednesdays and of 136 498 on Saturdays in January.
The two top daily newspapers in Latvia are Latvijas Avize and Diena, which had average daily print runs of respectively 35 800 copies and 31 000 copies, according to figures released by the papers.
In Estonia the No 2 after Postimees was the tabloid Õhtuleht with a daily print run of 53 900.

Source: Estonian Review