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On 18 October 2012 the Saeima (the Latvian Parliament) adopted important amendments to the Latvian Electronic Media Law in the first reading. These amendments focus on the regulation of digital terrestrial broadcasting services as from 2014. The draft also includes potentially controversial new powers of the media regulatory authority. Currently, digital terrestrial broadcasting is provided by one operator chosen in the course of a tender organized by the Cabinet of Ministers (see IRIS 2010-2/27). The exclusive rights of this operator expire on 31 December 2013. According to the transition rules...

On 4 October 2012 the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) adopted amendments to the Electronic Media Law, partially abolishing the “must-carry” rules applicable to cable television operators. Before these amendments, the Electronic Media Law provided that cable television operators must include in their packages programmes of the public television broadcasters as well as programmes of the national commercial television broadcasters whose terrestrial programmes are available to viewers free of charge. Consequently, the cable television operator could not request a payment from the television broadcasters...

On 11 May 2012 the Latvian Competition Council (CC) adopted an eagerly awaited decision on the merger clearance application submitted by Latvia’s two largest commercial television broadcasters, TV3 and LNT. The decision permitted the merger, but subject to strict conditions. The merger proposal involves the full acquisition of the LNT group companies by the MTG group. MTG is a Swedish broadcasting group, represented in Latvia by TV3 Latvia, which owns the largest commercial free-to-air television channel TV3. MTG also owns Viasat, which is acting both on the wholesale level by offering Pay-TV channels,...

The Ministry of Culture has developed a new concept paper on the creation of a new public service broadcasting medium in Latvia and, on 17 April 2012, the concept was approved by the National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP), selecting one of the three alternative models suggested by the Ministry. The concept is an extensive political planning document, providing a detailed analysis of the current situation of public service broadcasting (PSB) in Latvia, its deficiencies and potential solutions, taking into account also the experience of PSB systems in other member states of the EU. The main reason...

On 21 February 2012, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released its latest reports on Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Montenegro and Ukraine, adopted in the fourth cycle of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2011-4/3, IRIS 2010-9/2, IRIS 2010-4/3, IRIS 2009-10/109, IRIS 2009-8/4, IRIS 2009-5/4, IRIS 2008-4/5, IRIS 2006-6/4 and IRIS 2005-7/2). With the exception of the Report on Montenegro, all of these reports contain sections focusing specifically...