Latvia: LTV7 told to air content in Latvian only as of 2025

Latvia’s Public Electronic Mass Media Council (SEPLP) has told the state-owned TV channel, LTV7, to provide all content in Latvian only as of 1 January 2025, BNS reports. Currently, LTV7 carries programmes in Russian as well. Earlier, the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, approved a new national security concept that obliges Latvia’s public broadcasters to have all of their content in Latvian or “languages belonging to the European cultural space” as of 1 January 2026. Meanwhile, Culture Minister Agnese Lace insisted that Latvia’s public broadcasters had a duty to reach out to the country’s ethnic minorities. SEPLP and the unified public broadcaster, LSM, will develop services for Latvia’s Russian-speakers and other linguistic minorities.