What happened
The Latvian parliament, known as the Saeima, has passed a law that restricts the use of Russian language in public media. The law states that content in Russian will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, such as during a state of emergency or to counter disinformation.
Previously, public media in Latvia was required to produce content in minority languages, including Russian. However, the Constitutional Court ruled that this was no longer necessary, as Russian is a self-sufficient language in the Latvian media.
The new law will come into force on January 1, 2027, and will require public service media to produce content primarily in Latvian. The law also stipulates that content in languages recognized as self-sufficient, including Russian, may only be produced in exceptional circumstances, such as in an emergency or to refute misleading information that poses a threat to democracy and national security.
The Public Electronic Media Council (SEPLP) had proposed an alternative implementation of the Constitutional Court's ruling, which would have allowed for more flexibility in producing content in foreign languages. However, the Saeima's Legal Bureau stated that the SEPLP's proposal better implemented the conclusions of the Constitutional Court's ruling.
