100,000 kroons per minister

  • 2000-10-19
  • TBT staff and ETA
TALLINN - The Estonian Justice Minister Mart Rask plans to start talks with Eesti Ekspress weekly regarding payment for a group photo of the Estonian government used as an advertisement in the paper. The minister demands royalties of up to 3 million kroons.

The weekly published a photograph of 15 ministers at the Hiiumaa milk factory without their permission as an advertisement for Copter Action Estonia transport company on Sept. 21.

Initially the government asked for 100,000 kroons ($5,560) for each minister, but did not set the maximum sum of the royalty. Rask told ETA the sum may reach from 2 to 3 million kroons. The money would be used at the government's discretion.

Rask is to negotiate the issue with Eesti Ekspress on behalf of the government. So far, the parties have not met.

"We do not want to penalize anybody. We would like to make it clear that a person has a right to sell or not to sell a picture of him or her," Rask told ETA on Oct. 13.

Rask is ready for a long-lasting and interesting argument, according to the news agency. The minister plans to reach an out-of-court settlement with the paper and will neither sue it nor the company that ordered the advertisement.