Funding the united public media apparatus by providing them with 0.16% of Latvia’s GDP is impossible, said Latvian Minister of Finance Arvils Ašeradens during a meeting of the Saeima Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday, the 23rd of May.
He stressed that it is not allowed because of the ruling of the Constitutional Court on funding of science: the legislator cannot provide a portion of GDP to any sectors. The only exception is the defence sector, as this is provided by international agreements.
“In no other case the legislator has the right to set this percentage,
because it is an absolute prerogative of the government.
Otherwise we could end up with a process in which the legislator lists percentage proportions for all budget positions,” said the minister. He mentioned introducing a separate public media tax as an alternative to media funding from the country’s GDP. This topic was discussed by the ministry on Thursday, the 25th of May.
Saeima deputy Ingrīda Circene asked the minister if it is possible that because the independence and funding of public media can be considered a matter of national security, some of the funding could be associated with defence. The minister rejected this possibility by referencing the specific goals behind the defence sector’s funding, which is strictly monitored by international auditors.
Ašeradens added that the public media have already received funding from the defence budget. This includes funding for the procurement of mobile broadcast stations. “Public media funding is not provided in defence systems – there are very clear rules for that,” said the minister.
Chairman of the Public Electronic Mass Media Council (SEPLP) Jānis Siksnis mentioned during the meeting that on Friday, the 26th of May, it is planned to hold a workgroup meeting, during which participants will discuss topics related to the public media funding. The work group may present a report on possible options, costs, benefits and possible results next week.
At the same time, Siksnis said the work group’s various members have said
public media funding from GDP is technically possible.
The possibility is allowed by members of Saeima’s Legal Affairs Committee and Ministry of Finance. However, if the ministry’s position is not supporting provision of funding from GDP to the public media, SEPLP is prepared to work on a model that providing funding from a separate tax, said Siksnis.
Ašeradens said the tax review work group may provide its report in august. Until then he will refrain from giving further comments.
Latvijas Radio board chairperson Una Klapkalne mentioned that the merge of various media and change the financing model are two mutually linked topics – viewing them separately would be unacceptable.
LETA previously reported that on Tuesday the parliament’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee continued discussing topics related to the merge of public media and the change of their financing model.
SEPLP chairman Siksnis mentioned during a meeting of Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee on the 3rd of May that so far all involved sides, except the Ministry of Finance, agree that the combined media funding model should be similar to the defence sector funding model.
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