Estonia's ambassador calls "hysterical" reporting of Tallink wastewater issue

Priit Kolbre

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Estonia’s new Ambassador to Finland, Priit Kolbre, has sharply criticised the way the Finnish media has dealt with the issue of wastewater emissions from large Estonian-owned passenger ferries into the Baltic Sea. The ferries are operated by the Tallink shipping line.
      Kolbre was speaking on Thursday as part of a lecture series Our Common Gulf of Finland organised by the Tuglas Society.
      "The attitude of the Finnish media toward the operations of Tallink has been everything but constructive and unbiased. The hysterical attitudes that sometimes emerge toward an Estonian competitor, and its unfair, and at times improper denigration, is disturbing", Kolbre said.
      Kolbre said that he suspects that Tallink’s strong foothold in the Finnish economy, or a "typical Finnish attitude toward an Estonian competitor" may have affected the way the matter was handled by the media.
     
Helsingin Sanomat wrote in mid-November that two Tallink ships, the Romantika and the Meloodia, were dumping their wastewater in international waters in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.
      According to the article, the practice is not a violation of international regulations. However, competing shipping lines in the region have not done the same for many years.
      The news led to a public outcry, and many Finns threatened to boycott the Estonian company. Tallink’s practice was criticised in many newspaper editorials and columns. The company soon announced that it would stop dumping at sea and dispose of its wastewater by pumping it into the sewage system while in port.
     
Kolbre emphasised that Tallink has operated according to international treaties by treating its wastewater on board. He charged that the media had give the impression that Tallink was doing something wrong by not disposing of its wastewater in Helsinki like its competitors Silja Line and Viking Line do.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland wants tighter restrictions on ships' emissions (24.11.2005)
  Superfast Ferries prepares to dispose of wastewater into sewage system on land (18.11.2005)
  Tallink vessel pumps wastewater into City of Helsinki's sewer system (16.11.2005)
  Tallink ships still discharging sewage into Baltic Sea (14.11.2005)
  Bottom of Gulf of Finland remains in poor condition (22.8.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat