Latvijas Radio and Latvijas Televīzija categorically object to the proposal listed in government’s approved National Security Concept on banning media in Latvia from generating content in the language of one of the biggest national minorities in Latvia – Russian language – starting with 2026.
According to the public media, in the current geopolitical environment such a decision would be short-sighted and diametrically opposed to the set goal – strengthening the security of Latvia’s information space. By excluding high-quality content in the Russian language that meets the public interest and values, the state itself will indirectly promote the consumption of illegal content produced by Russian propaganda channels, representatives of Latvijas Radio and Latvijas Televīzija warn.
Public media in Latvia create content in national minority languages on two platforms – in audio format on Latvijas Radio 4 and the multimedia public media portal RUS.LSM.
The idea that all people that consume content in Russian language every day
will switch to Latvian media starting with the 1st of January 2026 is wishful thinking,
not a decision based on media consumption research, they say.
Public media invite politicians to address public cohesion topics professionally and strategically.
Latvijas Radio and Latvijas Televīzija on behalf of all public media in the country consider the rushed process of advancing and adopting such a decision (and as a restricted access document to boot), in which no consultations have been carried out with the Public Electronic Media Council, the media and experts themselves, who have studied in depth the issues of disinformation in the context of a hybrid war, as unacceptable.
This is why representatives of public media invite the National Security Committee and the Saeima to go back to to the National Security Concept and update the section on preventing threats to Latvia’s information space by crossing out the ban for public media to generate content in Russian language.
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