Search results : 92

The regulatory approach to disinformation (especially during the coronavirus pandemic) is a subject high on the media law agenda in the EU and its member states, and in the context of the European Democracy Action Plan. How regulators within the EU deal with disinformation is therefore important, and not only in terms of legal comparisons. With this in mind, the sanction recently issued by the Latvian regulator for coronavirus-related disinformation attracted particular attention, including beyond the Baltic state’s borders. On 2 March 2021, the Nacionālā elektronisko plašsaziņas...

On 19 November 2020, the Public Electronic Media and their Management Law (PEMML) was adopted; for the first time in Latvian media regulation, the supervision of public and commercial electronic media will be dealt with separately. The PEMML is a product of lengthy discussions among various stakeholders. Among other things, it provides for a new procedure to appoint the public media board and editor-in-chief, as well as establishing an ombudsman. The PEMML aims to ensure the efficient and transparent management, independence and accountability of public media; it also sets out the strategic...

On 17 November 2020, new amendments to the Latvian Electronic Mass Media Law (EMML) implementing the amended Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) were announced. The amendments to the EMML have been developed to transpose the AVMSD and to adapt the regulatory framework to the audiovisual and media environment, which has changed rapidly and significantly over the last decade due to digitalisation and globalisation. Firstly, the EMML has been supplemented by the clarification of existing definitions or the addition of new definitions for services or service providers. The definition...

A lack of respect for the right to privacy, combined with an apparent negligence of the tenets of responsible journalism, can be pertinent reasons to justify an interference with journalistic reporting, as protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In the case of Rodina v. Latvia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of Article 8 (right to privacy) ECHR because the Latvian courts had not sufficiently protected a doctor’s family life and her good name and reputation after she had been exposed by a newspaper and a TV station as being part...

On 14 February 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) clarified the possibilities for the processing of personal data for journalistic purposes, as guaranteed under Article 9 of Directive 95/46 of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The CJEU was requested by the Latvian Supreme Court to deliver a preliminary ruling on the question of whether Mr Buivids, who had posted a video on the Internet showing public officials of the Latvian national police force without their consent, could...