Latvia/ 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates  

4.2.6 Media pluralism and content diversity

TV and Radio

There is one public TV organisation (Latvian Television) and one public radio (Latvian Radio) that are supervised by the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP). More than 20 commercial (private) TV companies and more than 40 commercial radio companies operate in Latvia. Cable TV and transnational satellite TV companies function as well.

Latvian Television is a non-profit making limited liability company that is owned by the state. About 60% of its financing comes from the national budget, while the rest must be earned by the television station itself through its activities and the sale of advertising. This is a regularly debated issue, as commercial TV companies argue it to be an unfair situation and they are even accusing public TV of price dumping in the advertisement market.

Table 2:     Public subsidy for Latvian State TV, 2007-2011

Source:     Diena, 1 July, 2011.

Latvian TV is losing its position as illustrated by data representing the share of audience for TV channels: while the audience share of public TV has decreased (in November 2008: 10.8%; in November 2010: 8%), the audience of major commercial TVs is growing (source: TNS Latvia).

At the same time, the audience numbers for the cultural programme "100 g kultūras" (1st channel of public TV) is growing. It is broadcast at prime time, 4 times per week. Data from the study on culture consumption in 2009 (available in Latvian, pdf) shows that watching the culture programme on public TV is one of the most popular cultural activities among inhabitants (46% of respondents have seen it at least once per year). Only book reading and visits to open air events are more popular.

An annual contract between the public broadcasting companies and the National Electronic Mass Media Council stipulates the public remit. This document stipulates that Latvian TV will transmit cultural broadcasts for 322 hours in 2010, which on average is less than an hour per day. (Read an analytical article about cultural broadcasts on Latvian TV here -in Latvian).

A plan of a merger of public broadcasters Latvian Television and Latvian Radio has been discussed during the last years, but it was not followed by a political decision. In 2011, different options for the future developments of public media has been developed and presented. The concept is available in Latvian (Pdf). It is to be discussed and the final decision is to be made by the Parliament. The options include also a concept of establishing an integrated electronic media that would include public TV, public Radio and internet media.

At the beginning of 2012, it was announced that one of the major private TV companies, Latvian Independent Television (LNT - the company owns two other private TV stations, together having 16.6% of TV audiences in 2011) has faced insolvency problems and that it is to be resold to a Swedish media concern "Modern Times Group" (MTG) that owns another 3 private TV companies in Latvia – TV3, Viasat 3 and Viasat 6, representing 20.4% of total TV audiences in Latvia. A concern about possible growing media concentration has followed the announcements. The Competition Council is to take a decision prior to the deal.

Policy and legislation

The new Electronic Mass Media Law was adopted in 2010. The previous Law on Radio and Television (1995) was outdated and not in accordance with the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

This law has been heavily debated both in society and in the Parliament. Only its revised version was enforced by the President. The law has been criticised because it does not ensure political and economic independence of public media, and transparency in administering public media.

Also, the requirements for the use of the official language (Latvian) in media were broadly discussed. The law stipulates that the national and regional electronic mass media shall ensure that in the programmes produced by them, at least 65% of all broadcasts, except for the commercials, are in the official language. Moreover, the national and also regional electronic mass media shall ensure that in the television programmes produced by them, at least 40% of the transmission time of European audiovisual works (European audiovisual works altogether should be at least 51% of the weekly transmission time), except for news, sports events, games, and commercials, is reserved for audiovisual works in the Latvian language.

Anti-trust measures to prevent media concentration are stipulated by the Competition Law (in force since 2002, latest amendments in 2010) (latest amendments are not included in the translation) and the Electronic Mass Media Law (2010). The Electronic Mass Media Law stipulates that abuse of a dominant position of an electronic mass medium is prohibited. Within the meaning of this Law, the position when the market share of an electronic mass medium in Latvia in a particular market exceeds 35% shall be considered as a dominant position. The purpose of the Competition Law is to protect, maintain and develop free, fair and equal competition in the interests of the public in all economic sectors by restricting market concentration.

In 2011, The Guidelines for the policy in the electronic communication sector in the Republic of Latvia 2011-2016 were adopted (Doc in Latvian).

Printed media

Several factors have aggravated the situation of printed media lately. Firstly, economic crisis have left an impact on consumption patterns. Many long-time subscribers are giving up their newspaper and magazine subscriptions, as well as choosing not to buy press from a news-stand. In autumn 2005, 43% of Latvian inhabitants were reading daily newspapers (at least once per week), while in autumn 2010 the figure was only 26% (source: TNS Latvia).

Secondly, advertising revenues across all media have dropped by 46% in 2009 (if compared to 2008) reaching a drop of 57% in newspapers (see more detailed data of the Latvian Advertising Association in the presentation on advertising market volume in Latvian mass media in 2009 (in Latvian). See also the website of TNS Latvia). Thirdly, internet usage has continued to grow. According to the data of TNS Latvia, in autumn 2008, 55% of respondents have used the internet, while in autumn 2009, 65% of respondents reported they are internet users. Similar data are provided by Central Statistical Bureau reporting that in 2011, 66.2% of inhabitants use the internet on a regular basis (at least once per week). Fourthly, the changes in VAT increased the costs of the printed media (see chapter 5.1.5).

The combination of a dramatic drop in revenues and aggravated changes in media consumption habits has led to deep transformations in the print media market, the most shattering event in 2009 being the departure of the Bonnier Group, a major foreign investor and the owner of the main daily Diena and its businesses (Dienas Mediji) – a printing house, several regional newspapers, a newspaper distribution company and a magazine division. In 2010, the owners of the largest Russian daily "Telegraf" have changed as well.

The influence of oligarchs and consequent self-censorship of journalists have been widely discussed.

Also, the situation with the printed cultural press has been complicated. In 2011, the only cultural weekly "Kultūras Forums" ceased to be published. However, at the end of 2011, the Ministry of Culture announced a competition and assigned a public subsidy to the daily Diena for publishing a weekly cultural newspaper. Because of a significant decrease of the budget of the State Culture Capital Foundation (see chapter 2.1), many of the cultural magazines ceased to be published in 2010 or in 2011. Some of them are to be continued in electronic format.

Also, new electronic media have appeared. Examples include visual arts portal and magazine Studija, interdisciplinary arts magazine Māksla Plus, photography portal Foto Kvartāls, music magazine MÅ«zikas Saule, design magazine Dizaina Studija, magazine on architecture Latvijas architektÅ«ra and portal on architecture A4D, literature and philosophy portal ¼ Satori, theatre portals Teritorija and Kroders.lv, portal on cultural policy Culturelab, literature magazine Latvju Teksti and Latvian Literature (in English). A new website Arterritory.com has been launched on Baltic, Scandinavian, and Russian art and culture in Latvian, Russian, and English.

Until 2009, the State Culture Capital Foundation was the main supporter of cultural broadcasts and cultural publications in the printed media in Latvia. It had the following support programmes: Cultural broadcasts on Latvian TV (2007: LVL 100 000; 2008: LVL 80 000); and Documentation and publications in visual arts (2007: LVL 40 000). Support for cultural periodicals in 2007 was LVL 508 017; in 2008 – LVL 560 000. In 2009 and 2010 every decision about financial support to cultural publications was thoroughly debated among experts as limited support was available.

See the study of the Open Society Institute about the impact of the financial crisis on media and news delivery to citizens in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States: "Footprint of Financial Crisis in the Media" and Latvia country report.

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