The Ministry of Justice and TI Estonia have concluded a contract to map the extent of corruption in Estonian media, raise journalists’ awareness on corruption and ethics and to foster investigative journalism. Background Journalism has a significant role to play in preventing corruption, but sometimes this function is not exercised properly due to insufficient knowledge of the subject. On the other hand media cannot fulfill the role in preventing corruption if it is corrupt itself. Anti Corruption Strategy 2008-2012 measure “Increasing the awareness of corruption and ethics in the enterprise sector” consists of two activities to be carried out by Transparency International Estonia: a) training of journalists (incl. those working in counties) with the aim of promoting investigative journalism; b) analysis of the problem of corruption in the media. Activities 1) The analysis is aimed to investigate how corruption appears in the press and to offer solutions and guidelines. Questions that should be answered are: - what are the most common forms of corruption in media - what forms are common in Estonia - what is the extent of corruption in Estonian media - what solutions and guidelines can be offered 2) The aim of the training for journalists is promotion of results and suggestions of the analysis. Trainings are targeted at the owners, chief editors and journalists of national and regional print media, television and radio channels.
