Lawmakers propose separate newsrooms at Latvia’s public media

Two lawmakers have proposed requiring Latvia’s public broadcaster to keep its radio and television newsrooms separate. LSM reported that the amendments are due for a final reading in the Saeima on Thursday, October 22.

The amendments were initially submitted to protect the historic brand names of Latvijas Radio and Latvijas Televīzija. Proposals for the final reading would also set rules for the structure of Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs, or LSM, which has brought the two broadcasters together since 2025.

MP Ieva Brante of the United List proposed that the two news services operate as separate, independent editorial units. Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševiča of New Unity submitted a similar proposal, calling for separate news and analytical programme teams, with their own editorial resources and management, to support a diversity of views and professional competition.

The law says the public media outlet must be free from political, economic and other influence, and guarantees the board’s and editor-in-chief’s independence in editorial decisions. It does not specify whether the news services should be merged, leaving that decision to the broadcaster.

LSM’s board has said integration would combine administrative functions, strengthen editorial cooperation, create new units, modernise technology and set shared development priorities. The Public Electronic Mass Media Council and the European Broadcasting Union have said editorial independence must not be compromised. The union has also called for a way to preserve the public media’s heritage while protecting LSM’s editorial independence.