On August 19, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with the representatives of public media in the Riga Castle to discuss the development of public media policy in Latvia.
“Ensuring a functioning media space is a constitutional task assigned to the Saeima and the Government by the Satversme (Constitution). National democracy depends on a strong information space, hence this issue must be high on the agenda of the Saeima and the government,” outlined President of Latvia Egils Levits in his conversation with the media.
During the discussion, they discussed the main issues of media policy; however, the discussion was aimed at focusing on possible solutions mainly to promote the role of public media and to strengthen their position in the common information space of Latvia.
They talked about the implementation of the principles of good governance in monitoring the operation and development of the public media, as well as the prerequisites for modern and high-quality content based on democratic values and accessible to everyone in Latvia.
President of Latvia Egils Levits stressed that the adoption of the Public Media Law requires rapid progress to ensure transparent and good governance- based public media. “The law should define a mechanism that promotes the quality of public media explicitly and provides ongoing funding regardless of the political situation in the country. Likewise, the law should promote full-fledged public participation in ensuring public procurement,” stated Egils Levits.
The President of Latvia also underlined that one should find the funding for the media to exit the advertising market when planning the state budget.
