The amendments to the Pre-Election Campaign Law, which stipulates that the further pre-election campaigning will be carried out only in the national language, as well as canceling the funding of the Public Electronic Media Council (SEPLP) for the production of pre-election broadcasts in the television programs of commercial electronic media, will not have a significant financial impact on the industry, said the surveyed representatives of the industry.
The amendments to the Pre-Election Campaign Law, which stipulates that the further pre-election campaigning will be carried out only in the national language, as well as canceling the funding of the Public Electronic Media Council (SEPLP) for the production of pre-election broadcasts in the television programs of commercial electronic media, will not have a significant financial impact on the industry, said the surveyed representatives of the industry.
At the same time, the surveyed industry experts do not hide that the current version of the amendments to the law has caused a series of uncertainties, including about who will provide funding and how the availability of information will be affected, for example in the Latgale region.
The executive director of the Association of Latvian Broadcasters Ingemārs Vekteris explained to LETA that the proposed amendments to the Pre-Election Campaign Law related to SEPLP are of a technical nature, therefore the commercial media industry will not lose funding.
According to Vekter, although the amendments are intended to exclude the norm that SEPLP plans additional funding for the production of pre-election programs in commercial media television programs in the context of a public order, it does not cancel the current norm that funding for the production of pre-election programs is planned for the free airtime provided by the state. Namely, the amendments provide that funding will be available, but it will not be allocated to SEPLP.
Vekteris emphasized that the amendments made to the Pre-Election Campaign Law do not resolve the issue of which institution will be the one that actually allocates funding, nor does it resolve the issue of the amount of funding to be allocated.
At the same time, Vekteris pointed out that discussions should be continued in the context of the Law on Pre-Election Agitation in order to provide the widest and most varied information possible. According to him, it would be necessary to balance the existing advertising restrictions that exist between different platforms, as well as to review the existing restriction on pre-election campaign advertisements on television, where such advertisements on television are prohibited 30 days before the scheduled elections.
Ivonna Plaude, the chairman of the board of the Latvian Regional Media Association (LRMA), also admitted to the LETA agency that the amendments to the Pre-Election Campaign Law will not have significant financial consequences for the organization’s members. In addition, according to her, only a few commercial television stations have previously received support for creating pre-election programs.
At the same time, she emphasized that the amendments to the Law on Pre-Election Agitation make other questions related to the functions performed by the regional media to a greater or lesser extent in Latvian conditions.
Plaude explained that in terms of accessibility and other aspects, local media in the regions largely fulfill the function of public media, and the purpose of the law should be evaluated from this aspect – to provide an opportunity for a person to express an opinion and an opportunity for the public to receive comprehensive information about candidates for deputies, lists of candidates for deputies, political parties and political parties associations before the Saeima, European Parliament and municipal council elections.
“The law already defined a series of restrictions on the receipt of information, so expanding them right now – at a time when a neighboring country is carrying out an aggressive and also information-based war operation – is not, in our opinion, a completely adequate means,” said Plaude, commenting on the possible progress of the pre-election campaign only Latvian Language.
In the view of the members of the organization, the strengthening of the Latvian language in all spheres of the state is supported, however, the restriction on the use of the language incorporated in the amendments will prevent a certain part of the voters from receiving reliable and relevant information in a way that is as understandable as possible.
Plaude admits that the greatest danger with the availability of reliable information in the national language could be in Latgale, especially in the border regions, where, when searching for information in the language available to them, part of the population of Latgale could be misled and informationally disorientated, which could have negative consequences, especially in terms of national security in the long term .
LETA already announced that on May 25, the Saeima supported the amendments to the Law on Pre-Election Agitation in the second reading, which stipulates that pre-election agitation should basically be conducted in the national language.
Parliament will still have to decide on the amendments in the final reading.
After the changes to the Law on Pre-Elections Agitation have been adopted, it is expected that the state language will have to be spoken during pre-election public speeches, but in more private conversations it could be allowed to speak in another language as well, this vision was previously outlined in the discussions in the Saeima’s State Administration and Local Government Commission.
According to the amendments, it will be determined that during the pre-election campaign period in radio and television programs of public and commercial electronic media, public outdoor and indoor spaces, periodicals (newspapers and magazines), bulletins, books and other printed publications, as well as on the Internet, pre-election campaigns materials to be deployed and pre-election campaigning to be paid for in the national language.
Also, the law provides that during the pre-election campaign period before the elections of the European Parliament (EP) and municipal councils, the pre-election campaign materials mentioned above may include or the pre-election campaign may be provided with a translation into the official languages of the European Union member states, subject to the condition that the use of the national language does not include audio, nor visually be smaller or narrower than the content in a foreign language.
Also, it is planned to exclude from the draft law the norm that the Council of Public Electronic Media (SEPLP) would, in the context of a public order, plan funding for additional state-provided free airtime for the production of pre-election programs directly in the television programs of commercial electronic media. Similarly, regulation regarding pre-election broadcasts in regional electronic media municipal elections is excluded.
The SEPLP justifies the exclusion of these norms, because the Public Media Law SEPLP does not provide for the supervision of commercial electronic media, as well as the Electronic Media Law no longer provides for the transfer of part of the public order to commercial electronic media. Therefore, the respective duty does not fall under the competence of the council and there is no legal basis for it.
At the same time, the rule remains in the law that, still in the context of the public order, additional funding will be planned for the production of pre-election programs in the television programs of public electronic media.
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