That's what PM Krišjānis Kariņš (New Unity) told the press. It was confirmed by Development/For! co-chair Daniels Pavļuts on Twitter.
Ministri un koalīcijas frakciju vadītāji šodien budžeta seminārā vienojās par @Finmin rasto risinājumu @LatvijasRadio4, @LSM_eng un @lsm_ru šīgada finansējumam un daudzām citām svarīgām vajadzībām! pic.twitter.com/AqUPI8lKXp
— Daniels Pavluts (@pavluts) February 7, 2019
The government could likewise support an LTV funding request for transmitting the Olympic games.
The politicians did not, however, point out where the money would come from.
Pavļuts likewise said that funding for the aforementioned programs should be included in the base budget for the public media. That would happen during work on the 2020 state budget.
Kariņš pointed out that this would be done with a new Public Media law that would tie funding to the country's GDP.
For the past few years, an annual €191,000 for Latvian Radio 4 and Latvian Radio content for minorities, as well as a joint €121,000 for the LSM portals in English and Russian have been allocated from a special fund that's not part of the base budget of the public media.
As reported, this week a parliamentary discussion related to the legal status of Latvian public media turned to the topic of a possible funding cut to the aforementioned programs.
Latvian Radio 4 is a Russian-language radio station. LSM portals in Latvian, English and Russian are part of the same umbrella public service organization as Latvian Radio and Latvian Television.
You can read our editor-in-chief response to the events HERE.
