how public media in Russian will be remade

“Creates programs, their fragments and other services in minority languages”

On Wednesday, the Sejm subcommittee on media policy – headed by Progressive MP Atis Švinka – heard a report from the Council on Public Electronic Media. This structure was created in 2021, it is headed by Janis Siksnis, a graduate of Priekulska Secondary School, Bachelor of Political Science and Master of Public Administration (PL), who previously worked in editorial and media management positions in the state. Media, and also served as press adviser to President Vējonis.

The document began by listing a number of tasks set by law for television, radio and Internet sites: “strengthen Latvian identity, the use of the Latvian language, including the Latian written language and the Latvian sign language, promote the unity of society on the basis of the state language, popularize the national culture, art and traditions, to contribute to their maintenance and development, to support democratic patriotism, to deepen the understanding of law, national values, the State of Latvia and its regions, the history and everyday life of the Latvian and Livonian peoples and national minorities of Latvia.”

Part 7 of Article 3 of the Law on Public Electronic Media specifically states that the broadcaster “creates programs, their fragments and other services in the languages ​​of national minorities in order to promote the feeling of all Latvian residents that they belong to Latvia, social integration into Latvia as a national state and an in-depth understanding of social, social and cultural processes.”

The Electronic Media Council explains that more than 150 ethnic groups live in the Republic of Latvia: “National minorities and their culture are an integral and important part of the society and cultural space of Latvia. They have a separate history, number of representatives and situation in the economic, social and cultural field.” Article 114 of the Constitution emphasizes: “Persons who belong to national minorities have the right to preserve and develop their language, ethnic and cultural identity.”

Not to the detriment of national security

As is known, considerable debate on the topic of public broadcasting in minority languages ​​began following the Seimas adopted the National Security Concept in 2023. In particular, it said: “Further policy for the protection and development of the state information space is fundamentally based on the basis of the Latvian language and the values ​​of the Satversme. A media policy and legal environment is being created that supports content in the state language.”

“In order to strengthen the local media space,” the Concept stated, “it is necessary to continue to support high-quality and reliable content in the Latvian language. High-quality local content simultaneously reduces the possible risks of the influence of local propaganda and increases public trust in local media.”

In this regard, in 2025, “as part of a public order,” it is planned to adapt the content of the multimedia resource for national minorities (formerly Rus.LSM) from Latvian. “Thus reducing the difference in the two communities.” “Gradually abandon the division of the editorial board by nationality or language.”

By July next year, the board of the Latvian Public Media – the united television and radio – must develop a strategy for 2026-2028, “including a conceptually new offer of programs and services, ensuring content in the languages ​​of national minorities and regarding the history and everyday life of national minorities, as well as deepening understanding of regions of Latvia and promoting accessibility to a wide cultural offer.”

Special attention – Latgale

The eastern region of Latvia, noted in the document from Mr. Siksnis’s department, is “ethnically and culturally particularly diverse and also special for the external security of the state.” Therefore, Latgale should be a priority, just like “formats of communication with society in the languages ​​of national minorities regarding important everyday issues of the state and society, as well as in crisis situations.”

It is planned to introduce “a proportional approach to the use of languages ​​of national minorities when creating the content of public media as part of the creation of a single information space.” At the same time, it is necessary to “expand the accessibility of culture in all regions of Latvia”; to carry out “the integration of children and youth of national minorities into the Latvian cultural space”; and at the same time – “not to lose the general part of the audience of national minorities.”

The Public Media Council announced the results of opinion polls to the subcommittee. In principle, they are not bad – 45% of the population trusts media resources, sport comes first in popularity (58%), topics of entrepreneurship (48%) and adult education (40%) are of interest.

Among those who are not interested in public media, sociologists have identified two categories. There are those who simply do not know regarding the existing offer, and there are also supporters of alternative sources (YouTube, Telegram). At the same time, 22% of national minorities in Latvia use exclusively the LR4 channel and/or Rus.LSM.lv, without using Latvian-language broadcasting. This share is estimated at approximately 150,000 people.

“This is every two out of five residents of national minorities who consume Latvian public media at least once a week.” In total, LTV and LR, regardless of language, reach an audience of 60% of national minorities, or 420,000 people.

There is another alarming signal that opinion polls revealed: “National minorities who consume Latvian public media at least once a week have a high probability of using Russian television channels, which are prohibited in Latvia.”

The latter circumstance, however, was not developed in the study. But it would be interesting, you see, to find out how and who, given the ban on cable operators distributing Russian and Belarusian channels, is watched in Latvia. However, no one will openly talk regarding this – the matter is now not very legal.

The day before, your author watched on a streaming platform quite accessible in our country a two-hour interview with a man who calls himself a philosopher and calls for killing and dying in the name of the Russian idea. Now he will head a research and educational center at one of the largest humanitarian universities in Moscow. An instructive spectacle, it might be translated into Latvian – as they say, you need to know the enemy by sight!