Riga has been called the news desert of Europe. How is that?

Since the newspaper “Rīgas Balss” stopped publishing, the capital has not had its own independent publication that could evaluate the work of the local government. “There is not a single local or regional media outlet in the capital and its surroundings. For this reason, this study defines Riga and its surrounding areas as news deserts. These regions are not economically backward, nor do they suffer from low Internet coverage,” it says in the study “Europe’s News Deserts” conducted by the Center for Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute.

Over the past five years, three local newspapers have disappeared – in 2019, Alūksnes Ziņas and Malienas Ziņas merged, and a year later, the newspaper Kursas Laiks stopped publishing in Liepaja (its successor was the portal Rekurzeme.lv). However, this does not pose a serious risk, since local journalism still exists in these regions. At the same time, the fact that the newspaper “Zemgale” was closed in Dobele due to a lack of subscribers turns the region into a news desert. The municipal publication “Dobeles novada vēstis” with a circulation of 8,000 copies cannot replace the newspaper, because there is not enough publication that would evaluate the work of the local government.

There are currently 33 local newspapers in the country, as well as regional radio and television studios. However, only 36% of the population read local newspapers in the last month. The study highlights the need for new solutions to support local and regional media, especially in the area of ​​digital transformation.

Latvian newspaper