Investigative journalism in e-State Estonia Tarmo Vahter Weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress

Where to find the information?

The Estonian Way Estonia has since 2001 the Freedom of Information Law (Avaliku Teabe Seadus). It has really changed the Estonian journalism. I will tell you about 3 different cases, where I have found interesting information from the Internet.

1) Documents registers Every government office in Estonia must publish the register of correspondence on its website. You will see who has sent the letters for the office and what the topic was. If you want to read the original letter, you have to send a FOIA request. In 5 days time the government office must send you the copy of the letter.

The register of correspondence of the Ministry of Justice

In 2006 I found an interesting letter about Congo in this register

I made a FOIA request and got the original document.

CLAIM: Ex-prime minister Tiit Vähi is doing illegal mineral business in Congo!?

Story in Eesti Ekspress

2) Central commercial register and land register Everybody can use the Estonia´s central commercial register and land register. It is not free of charge – you have to pay about 50 cents–1 euro for each search. You can do good stories, if you use both of the databases.

In 2008 I just accidentally noticed that the private company of politician Heiki Kranich was registered at the address Tuvi 12/3.

It is a top apartment house in the city centre of Tallinn.

Let´s check the land register!

...the results

What did I find? The land register showed that it was a big 160 m 2 apartment. The owner of the apartment was not Heiki Kranich, but an unknown company Luksi Maja. Back to the commercial register!

...and the results were:

What did I find now? One of the owners of the company Luksi Maja was Koit Uus - a very rich businessman. Uus had recently made a big land deal with the ministry of environment. Guess who was the minister of environment back then?

Heiki Kranich, who is now living in his luxury apartment.

Story in Eesti Ekspress

3) Archival Information System Database of National Archives of Estonia. It enables everyone to get information about a record on the Internet. There are more than 5 million records. You can not see the documents themselves, you have to go to the archive to read them.

In 2006 I got a tip that some political parties have handed their documents to the National Archives. I made a search with the name Isamaa (Pro Patria Union) – it´s the most important conservative party in Estonia.

Bingo!

A lot of documents... What´s this? Bookkeeping?

Unbelievable! They have handed every financial document from the year 1993 to the National Archives. Nobody had read them before. There where even original documents of the bank transfers.

When Pro Patria´s leader Mart Laar was the prime minister of Estonia, his party was secretly collecting money from the state-owned enterprises.

My Story in Eesti Ekspress

Summary It´s possible to find very interesting things from the Estonian databases. You can make good stories very cheaply You just have to now where to look. And it´s very important to be patient