Emergency rules have had a profound effect on the national economy, people’s everyday life and have led to growing pressure on the media space. President of Latvia is convinced that the state of emergency requires introduction of special support for local media.
‘We will not be able to overcome crisis, there will be no coordinated community response unless we have sufficient number of reliable media – people will be exposed to ever-increasing disinformation. Major Latvian media are doing their best to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards. Journalists have not stopped working. Quite the contrary, they are working even harder than usual. But the economic recession means that media advertising revenue has shrunk,’ said Egils Levits.
President Levits believes that government should act now and find the most efficient ways of supporting different media branches.