Blackwell Reference Online

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The three countries on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in northeast Europe – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, known collectively as the Baltic states – had been subject to the empire-building policies of neighboring countries around the Baltic Sea since the thirteenth century before they first achieved independence from 1918 to 1940. In 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact brought them within the sphere of Soviet influence and they were incorporated into the Soviet Union as Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) in 1940. Since regaining independence in 1991, the Baltic states have aligned their future with western Europe by joining both NATO and the EU in 2004. While the similarity of their historical paths and their geopolitical situation might seem to have created the conditions for a common development of their media, their ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural peculiarities have resulted in three different systems, which are among the smallest in Europe with potential audiences of 1.36 million in Estonia, 2.33 million in Latvia, and 3.46 million in Lithuania (see Table 1 ). Table 1  Basic data on the Baltic states Country and type of political system Territory (1,000 sq. km) Population and % ethnic distribution (2006) Official language Name of Parliament and no. of members/ parliamentary parties (2007) GDP per capita 2006 (US$) Source : http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5377.htm ... log in or subscribe to read full text