LSM admits storm crisis radio coverage was insufficient

Latvian Public Media’s radio news coverage was insufficient during the crisis caused by the storm, LSM board member Ieva Aile said in an interview with LSM’s Latvijas Radio programme Labrīt on Tuesday. She said the incident showed that the organisation lacked a clear decision making process for such situations.

Aile said LSM editor in chief Anita Brauna was left without communications during the storm, removing one of the key links in the coordination process.

She said the radio had provided coverage, but not on a sufficient scale. Information was needed about developments across the country and in each municipality, particularly as one third of households had lost electricity. As reports emerged that communications services had also failed, entire municipalities were left isolated without access to communication or information about how to act in an emergency, Aile said.

Aile said LSM has procedures for changing its programming and preparing for such changes. However, she said each news service manager is primarily responsible for organising work in such situations. LSM special news broadcasts should also have been shown on television, she added.

Uģis Lībietis, head of the Latvijas Radio News Service, resigned after the incident.