The announcement marks a major shift from the police board's previous policy on media access to information on crimes.
TALLINN — Estonian police have ceased sending information to the media on most crimes, which they say is not feasible given a lack of staffing.
Since Jan.1. when the Estonian Police force merged to became the Police and Border Guard Board, their communication bureau announced that they will no longer send out detailed information on crimes in daily morning emails due lack of personnel. The information is still available on request, but from now on it is up to the police to decide what crimes are worthy of having information released, which could result in crimes escaping public scrutiny and reduce information on police activity.
According to the country’s Public Information Act, government entities must disclose any information concerning danger which threatens the life, health, property or the environment as quickly as possible. But this only stipulates that police release information on fugitives.
In a country where 274,000 people (one-fourth of the population) are victims of a crime annually according to the Department of Statistics, only stories on armed robbers or murderers on the loose will be readily available for journalists. Other criminal cases will only be made public if a journalist happens to hear about it.
Tuuli Härson, the Police and Border Guard Board press spokeswoman said that journalists will always be able to inquire about a specific crime, but that press releases on the less important crimes will be left out.
“The spigot has not been closed, the question is in the initiative of a journalist,” Härson told Baltic Reports.
Although Härson insisted that not much is going to change, she still recognized that journalists will lose an simple way to get the information.
The Ministry of the Interior supports the police board’s decision.
Kristina Kareva, a press adviser for the ministry, said the Police and Border Guard Board will not stop notifying the public about crimes.
“Vice versa, the aim is to contribute more into the substantive informative activity which is also supported by the Ministry of Interior,” Kareva told Baltic Reports.
