The largest Estonian daily newspaper Õhtuleht has apologised for publishing an ad by the Chinese embassy after other journalists in the country labelled it as “propaganda”.
The full-page ad published at the daily claimed reports about repressions against China’s Uighur Muslim minority were “the most ridiculous lies and rumors of the century”, according to the Estonian public broadcaster ERR News.
The publication was criticised by editors of other leading Estonian newspapers.
Mart Raudsaar, editor of Postimees, said “we do not publish such communist propaganda”, adding that, “as a country, we also have certain values”. Urmo Soonvald, editor of Estonian EPL, also spoke out against “propaganda”.
Later on Friday, Martin Šmutov, editor of Õhtuleht, apologised for running the ad.
“We have tried to ensure the adverts correspond to the company's values. In this case, we have gone against these values and apologise,” Šmutov told ERR News. “We will make organisational changes to avoid similar mistakes in the future.”
The Chinese embassy has previously purchased ads in Lithuania's newspapers as well, with analysts raising alarm over China's biased, paid content appearing in Eastern European media outlets.
Read more: China is subverting media in Eastern Europe, Baltics
Drawing rebukes and sanctions from Beijing, the Baltic states have recently snubbed China’s 17+1 economic forum and have publicly spoken out against Uighur repressions.
The Lithuanian parliament plans to hold special hearings and consider recognising the crimes against Uighurs as genocide.
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