There has long been talk of strengthening the regional press in order to ensure that independent journalism continues to exist in the regions. One way is to adapt to changes in readers' habits by increasing the amount of digital content. Regional newspapers were therefore invited to use the funding available from the EU's Recovery Fund to digitize their newspapers.
Realizing that they could not do it alone, 21 regional newspapers joined forces and applied together. "Kurzemnieks", for example, had hoped for €20,000 for technical support to improve its digital content.
All regional newspapers received the message that their application was not successful.
Daiga Bitiniece, editor-in-chief of Kurzemnieks and board member of the Latvian Association of Journalists, said: "When we heard that we had not received a single cent, of course, we were shocked. I mean any regional media. For some of the regional media, it really could be a death sentence, who have not yet created halfway normal portals, halfway modern portals."
Uldis Salmiņš, board member of the Regional Media Association, said that each media outlet had hoped for an average of €50,000 to €60,000 in support - €750,000 in total. This rejection is a big blow for regional media.
The Central Financial and Contracts Agency (CFLA) said there were more applicants than money, so 7 out of 30 applicants were selected to go forward - those with the best-written projects.
"The quality of which was not as high as the others... Now, in a competition like this, the best ones get the funding, yes, the ones with the best quality projects," said Agnese Abu-Junese, Director of the CFLA's Project Selection Department.
The names of the seven shortlisted applicants for a total of €3.7 million in EU funding are not known publicly.
LTV has information that one of the potential beneficiaries could be the technology company Tet with its Helio platform.
In a written response, Helio Media Ltd said: "The potential funding is intended to be used for the creation of a new and more modern live TV news program with the digitization of the production process, as well as for the modernization of the 1188.lv portal, improving the visitor's experience of the portal."
Given the success of the Tet project in the competition, Salmiņš, board member of the Regional Media Association, is concerned about the regulations, which were drawn up not by media associations but mainly by associations related to information technology.
"I can see that this is why the projects were rejected, that it is not the media sector that has been listened to, but purely the telecommunications sector. Some of them are working, huge big companies are developing their platforms. They are also developing some content, and of course, they also want to say - we are media, we also want to be supported," said Salmiņš.
The Ministry of Culture, meanwhile, rejected accusations that regional media had not been heard.
"When we see this list, it would be correct to assess whether or not this competition has achieved its objective and reached the different media segments," said Zanda Saulīte, Director of the EU Funds Department at the Ministry of Culture.
The Ministry of Culture promises to look for opportunities to support regional media from other available forms of support. It should be noted that the current call for proposals has not yet closed and the applicants have not yet been officially confirmed.
