Safeguarding democracy in a small media market: Estonian public broadcasting between trust, regulation and market sustainability

This article examines the role of Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) in sustaining democratic communication in a small, bilingual media market between 2010 and 2025. It situates ERR within broader transformations in Estonia’s media landscape and analyses how the position of public service media has changed in relation to audience trust, market sustainability, and regulatory expectations. The study addresses three questions: how ERR’s audience reach, perceived importance, and trust have evolved among Estonian- and Russian-language communities; which political, economic, and regulatory factors shape ERR’s institutional resilience; and what policy implications follow from high public trust, rising public expectations, and relatively declining funding. The analysis draws on repeated audience surveys, long-term audience measurement data, financial indicators from Estonian media companies, and relevant legal and policy developments. These sources are used to assess both changes in audience attitudes and the wider structural conditions affecting public service and commercial media in Estonia. The findings indicate that ERR has remained a central trust anchor in Estonia’s information environment, particularly in the context of disinformation risks and growing external pressures on democratic communication. At the same time, the capacity of both public service media and commercial media to sustain journalistic quality, pluralism, and social cohesion has become increasingly constrained by structural changes in advertising markets, the growing influence of global digital platforms, and the declining financial sustainability of domestic media. These developments are particularly significant in a small media market, where public service media are expected not only to provide universal access and high-quality journalism but also to strengthen democratic resilience and support a shared information space across linguistic communities. By situating the Estonian case within broader European debates, the article contributes to understanding how small media markets respond to the combined pressures of globalization, technological disruption, market fragility, and democratic vulnerability.