On 14 May, President of Latvia Egils Levits took part in high-level online expert e-conference ‘Building information space for strong democracy’ and opened the panel discussion ‘How can Latvia’s information space serve its constitutional purpose?’.
President praised the organisers for focusing on such an important topic, which involves both ‘the human nature of people and political and legal dimensions of a democratic state’.
‘We each live in an information environment influenced by both the individuals and the governments,’ said the President. According to him, our beliefs and the way we act are determined by our individual experiences and, more importantly, the information environment around us. It is very important to be aware of how this information environment is shaped and information is structured and manipulated to influence what we think and how we act. ‘Information environment is complex, and it is not just the digital space, it influences our personalities,’ noted President Levits.
In his speech, President of Latvia stressed the link between quality of information environment and languages, i.e., the more languages you know, the greater are your possibilities in terms of accessing all kinds of information.
Egils Levits also focused on accessibility of information environment. He referred to the way we, for example, perceive and analyse information, access devices used for sharing of digital information.
According to the President, democratic discourse is an important element of information space. Democratic discourse is a core element of democracy. ‘Democracy is rooted in civic participation in shaping national policies,’ reminded President. ‘Authoritarian countries can do without broad democratic discourse because most decisions are made by authoritarian institutions, whereas national democratic discourse is fundamental in democracy,’ said Egils Levits.
President also talked about the role of media and social networks in shaping more democratic discourse, the significance of free speech, especially online, and modern information challenges, such as hate speech and misinformation. Egils Levits pointed out that in countries subject to rule of law the right to regulate free speech should be exclusively reserved for democratically elected legislators and not some anonymous complainers or pre-programmed algorithms.
Conference was co-organised by Association ‘Formula of Latvia 2050’, Latvia State Radio and Television Centre, SJSC, University of Latvia, Cross-sectoral Coordination Centre, Ministry of Economics, European Commission Representation in Latvia and Latvijas Mobilais Telefons, Ltd.