Advertising, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

Photo: president.lv

NEPLP on Thursday informed Latvian President Egils Levits on this priority that will strengthen the Latvian media environment.

NEPLP chairman Ivars Abolins said that the council is satisfied that the president shares this opinion. "When we speak about protection of Latvia's information space, we often mention contents created in Russia and the Kremlin propaganda. However, our information space is contents created in Latvia. The public media are the corner stone of Latvia's information space," he said.

NEPLP deputy chairwoman Aurelija Ieva Druviete said that exit from commercial advertising market is a historic decision that will allow public media to create good contents for Latvian residents, fundamentally strengthening Latvia's information space.

In 2018 the Saeima adopted legislative amendments, providing that the public media will exit the advertising market as of January 1, 2021. According to independent auditors, this step will require EUR 13.8 million, of which EUR 5.5 million were allocated this year, and EUR 8.3 million are needed from next year's budget.