LSM can use Russian for counter-propaganda purposes, says judge

• Rīta Panorāma

The Russian language can be used by Latvian Public Media (LSM) essentially for the purpose of refuting propaganda and disinformation, the President of the Constitutional Court (Satversmes Tiesa/ST) Irēna Kucina told the Latvian Television program "Rīta Panorāma" ("Morning Panorama") on March 31st.

Kucina was speaking a day after the ST delivered a much-anticipated ruling on the use of Russian by public media which said that the current rules in place were in some respects inappropriate and "incompatible with the Constitution", as previously reported.

By implication the ruling suggested that Russian was used too much and for too many things. On Tuesday's television appearance, Kucina underlined that by suggesting the use of Russian should be largely restricted to counter-propaganda purposes.

"The public media basically works in Latvian. Content in Russian can only be to the extent necessary to refute propaganda and disinformation. These are not questions about everyday life, these are questions about what is related to Latvian values, for example, electoral processes, the war in Ukraine, what is Latvia's position in the outside world regarding the war, economic issues," Kucina pointed out.

"The primary task is for the legislator. However, public media can be proactive and look at their own content, which is provided in Russian, and whether it is proportionate to security issues. Namely, whether these are questions that refute propaganda," said the Chairwoman of the Supreme Court, adding that coverage of everyday issues in Russian would not be appropriate.

This would seem to imply that if LSM is to continue producing content for a Russian-speaking audience, it would need to find some way of persuading them to tune in simply in order to read the debunking of Russian state media and similar hostile or inaccurate media channels.

The exxisting strategy chosen by the LSM board  provides that from January 1st, 2026, the LSM.lv portal has been operating with content mainly in Latvian but with content also available in English (which you are reading now), Ukrainian, and Russian.

However, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the current regulations on the creation of content in minority languages ​is too broad, which will certainly lead to changes.