Search results : 92

Once again the European Court of Human Rights has found a breach of Article 10 of the Convention in a case of protection of journalistic sources. The Court is of the opinion that the Latvian investigating authorities failed to adequately protect the sources of a journalist of the national television broadcaster Latvijas televīzija (LTV), Ms Nagla. The journalist’s home was searched and data storage devices were seized following a broadcast she had aired informing the public of an information leak from the State Revenue Service (Valsts ieņēmumu dienests - VID) database. Almost three months...

On 14 February 2013, the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) adopted amendments to the Electronic Media Law. The amendments were announced in the law gazette on 6 March 2013 and aim at implementing a new regulatory framework for digital terrestrial broadcasting services (see IRIS 2013-1/29). The current structure, according to the Electronic Media Law is in force only until 31 December 2013. So far, digital terrestrial broadcasting is provided by only one operator chosen in the course of a tender organized by the Cabinet of Ministers (see IRIS 2010-2/27). The chosen operator is the company SIA Lattelecom,...

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,...