On 21 March, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with members of the Public Digital Media Council (PDMC), Jānis Siksnis, Sanita Jegermane-Upleja and Jānis Eglītis, to discuss PDMC’s public media merger and funding model presented to the parliament, Saeima. Meeting also focused on public service broadcasting quality management system.
PDMC underlined that public radio and television merger plan is based on equal treatment of both media and views of radio and television staff. Post-merger editorial standards, pluralism and stronger focus on children’s, youth and investigative content, are currently the main concerns going into January 2024, which is the time when merger should be completed according to the concept.
‘Saeima, which asked the PDMC to develop both these plans, must set a clear path of action for both reforms by making the relevant decision before the end of its current term,’ President Levits stressed. Egils Levits also expressed his support for gradual increase of public media funding in the medium term, from current 0.13 % of GDP to 0.16 %, which also corresponds to European Union average for such funding.
Another issue discussed during the meeting was public media quality management system development and supervision plans adopted by PDMC. According to its members, Council is ready to design a ‘public benefit test’ to collect public’s and expert feedback about performance of public media on annual basis.