The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK) will temporarily suspend marriage registrations as of 1 January 2024, Postimees reports. Archbishop Urmas Viilma said that the decision was due to “practical reasons.” He noted that the church’s questions on what legislative amendments that legalised same-sex marriages meant in practice remained unanswered. He pointed out that members of…
The proposal of Estonia’s Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) to begin monitoring media bias will only apply to programmes from third countries, TTJA director general Kristi Talving announced, ERR reports. She apologised for the confusion caused by TTJA’s proposal, saying that the agency should have clarified that the new rules would only apply…
Estonia has almost 800 children living in orphanages out of a total of 3,000 children who are unable to grow up with their birth families for various reasons, ERR reports. Around 1,500 children are in foster care, 600 have been adopted, and a little over 150 are in temporary foster care. Maarja Kuldjärv, head of…
Almost two thirds of residents in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, prefer to drink tap water, according to a Norstat LT poll for the municipal water supplier, Vilniaus Vandenys, ELTA reports. The survey showed that 71% of Vilnius residents preferred tap water to bottled water. In a similar survey done in 2021, just 44% of Vilnius residents…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, is working on a "national agreement" to address the issue of a declining population, LRT reports. Currently, one in three households in Lithuania consists of single individuals living alone, which has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. This trend includes both seniors, particularly women due to a significant gender…
Car owners in Estonia face increasing pressure and deserve fair treatment, Simmo Saar, head of the newly-established Estonian Car Owners Association (EAOL), stated, ERR reports. The new association aims to represent the rights and interests of car owners, including in regard to taxation, highway planning, traffic law, penal policy, and traffic education. EAOL opposes the…
Police officers in Estonia are required to draw their weapons almost every week on duty, primarily due to the prevalence of gas pistols and starter guns that resemble real firearms, ERR reports. However, police officers actually discharge their firearms only a few times a year. Armin Saarits, head of the Special Preparedness Unit at the…
Estonia’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, Tiit Riisalo (Estonia 200), said that the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) had the right to protect Estonia’s media space from propaganda channels of hostile states, ERR reports. Riisalo said that TTJA had blocked 51 TV channels and 273 websites to date. Also, he noted that…
Estonia’s Minister of Interior, Lauri Läänemets (SDE), does not support the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority’s (TTJA) proposal to begin monitoring media bias in news programmes, ERR reports. The ministry’s media adviser, Andres Jõesaar, rejected the idea as well. Speaking on ETV’s “Aktuaalne Kaamera,” Jõesaar stated that there was no problem that required such…