Estonia's President personally makes notes in Twitter

YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. The Estonian President meets with the mass media representatives very frequently, if his schedule is not full of visits. Toomas Sildam, the Public Relations Adviser to the Estonian President, stated this in a conversation with “Armenpress” news Agency.

- What is Your assessment of the mass media’s role in the Estonian public’s life?

- The mass media plays a huge role. As in any other democratic country, the mass media have a great impact on the formation of public opinion and political decisions in Estonia. In my opinion, we have a predominantly professional media in Estonia. If there was a notion of “classical mass media” 20 years ago, today it’s online media, which records growth and, naturally, there are different rules in this sphere. One can frequently encounter a material, which has not been checked out before, and only after the articles are being updated and changed. In this respect, the social networks play a tremendous role. They function as mass media frequently enough.

- Recently Twitter has become the best means to spread or present information. What social network does the President of Estonia use and where does he have official pages?

- We try to be most operative and use all the social platforms - Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. There are different methods to get the message of the President to the audience. I would not say that all the journalists are of the same opinion that the President is accessible, though in general you cannot say that the society and the mass media are not informed about the opinion of the President on this or that issue, taking place both in Estonia or in the world. Concerning the preferences of the social networks, the President makes the notes in Twitter personally. He decides what information to publish in the blog and I am responsible for the information posted in the Facebook profile. The President also replies to the notes in Twitter. (THE FULL VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE IN ARMENIAN)

Interview by Hasmik Harutyunyan