Consternation Befits The Independent Regulator

Michael Hedges July 6, 2015 - Follow on Twitter

There’s a reason politicians need to be kept a safe distance from media regulators. Actually, there are several. Tempted as they are by everything, politicians like rules administered conveniently. Interests must be served. And so many politicians reward themselves for electoral success with a hammer, terms in office spent searching for a nail.

Latvia’s National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) chairperson, Aindrs Dimants, was with great ceremony punished last week by parliament’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee. The politicians wanted to send four of the five NEPLP members packing but settled for one. “The fight is not over,” said Mr. Dimants to Latvian public radio (July 1). The full parliament - the Saeimas - is expected to uphold the decision along party lines this week.

In mid-June Latvian MPs began their complaint citing foul language in music played on the youth radio channel of public broadcaster Latvijas Radio (LR). NEPLP members were dragged in for questioning. Latvijas Radio 5 (Pieci.lv) launched in March 2014 to the consternation of commercial broadcasters. The NEPLP has oversight authority on funding and administration of Latvian public radio and television, to the consternation of politicians, as well as the power to correct “illegal or inappropriate” content.

The five NEPLP members were appointed by parliament at the first of 2012, when a different set of politicians ruled the roost. A new political coalition took power in October last year. And, as one broadcaster noted, “they wanted their own guys.”

Those shifting political dynamics - centrist parties pushed pro-Russian parties out of power - affected Latvia’s media landscape. The government - administered by the NEPLP - took a harder line on broadcast content sourced in the Russian Federation and applied stricter rules on Latvian and Russian language broadcasting. Radio stations, for example, were no longer allowed to offer mixed language programming, either Latvian or Russian, to the consternation of at least one broadcast owner.

Mentioned in the list of complaints about the NEPLP was the recent decision to allow commercial broadcaster Radio Skonto, an adult-contemporary station with a national footprint, to use a Riga FM license under its license for a Russian-language station - Skonto Plus - featuring Russian pop music and Russian-language news sourced from international broadcasters not affiliated with the Russian Federation. Ethnic Russians make up about 20% of the Latvian population. Though older and poorer it is a significant market for businesses, media and, of course, politicians. The other complaint was that the four NEPLP members had lost “their good reputation,” obviously a firing offence, lack of specificity notwithstanding except for the traditional whinging about “travel expenses.”

"From the beginning the parliamentary committee wanted to look after the big guys,” said University of Latvia Communications Studies professor Martins Kaprans, quoted by delfi.lv (July 3). “They then realized that the potential damage not only here in Latvia but also internationally might be too large. It reminds me of a club where everyone tries to tell increasingly absurd and funny jokes. But it looks like nobody finds the jokes funny.”

Media watchers urged caution, lest Latvia’s media environment sinks to depths seen in Hungary. “Any decision not based on the law governing the work of the independent regulator can be seen as interference with their decision-making process,” said OSCE media representative Dunja Mijatovic in a statement (June 30). “I urge the members of the Latvian Parliament to carefully examine this proposal as the independence of national media regulators is a basic pre-condition for preserving and facilitating free media and free expression.”

Independence of media regulators is hardly uniform across the European Union or, alas, the world. The European Commission’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) does not prescribe but suggests an arms length between media regulators and either politicians or commercial interests. Last year the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Services was organized to advise the EC on AVMS Directive revisions, one being regulatory independence “to protect the interests of citizens and consumers and, at the same time, to ensure a predictable and dynamic competitive environment in their sectors.”

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