The Latvian Saeima has adopted amendments to legislation on 1 October restricting the use of the Russian language by the country’s public media, reports LSM.
Under the amendments, content in Russian may only be produced in three cases:
- during an emergency situation;
- during a state of emergency;
- for targeted debunking of disinformation that threatens democracy or Latvia’s security.
The bill will take effect upon being signed by the President.
Latvian Television and Latvijas Radio currently do not broadcast in Russian. The LSM.lv portal has operated as a single news platform in Latvian since 2026, also carrying content in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. LSM’s Russian-language team had also used social media to reach its audience in Latvia and the wider region, running the public broadcaster’s YouTube channel with the largest subscriber count.
The recently established Latgalian team at LSM has also said their target audience included Russian-speaking residents of the region, producing content specially adapted for them since early 2026.
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The changes to the law stem from a 30 March 2026 verdict by Latvia’s Constitutional Court, which ruled that public broadcasters had to produce content primarily in Latvian and that the state had no obligation to protect the Russian language, since it is widely used in the country and is already served by commercial media outlets. In the Court’s view, the previous requirement to produce content in the languages of national minorities has contributed to the emergence of a separate media space and undermined the status of Latvian as the state language.
The amendments also stipulate that the public broadcaster must consider the nature and scope of a state security threat when debunking disinformation. Latvia’s Public Electronic Media Council had previously proposed allowing the production of content in foreign languages as long as the broadcaster could sufficiently justify this decision on a yearly basis. At the same time, the Council stated that the adopted changes could pose risks to the public broadcaster’s independence.
The law also allows for elements in foreign languages to be used within films, series, and performances broadcast in Latvian as part of artistic expression.
In March 2026, Latvia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the Latvian Public Broadcaster was only allowed to use the Russian language to the extent it is necessary to debunk propaganda and disinformaion.