Ethics Board

On 25 March 2021, the Ethics Board was appointed at the general meeting of the members of the “Latvian Media Ethics Council”.

The competence of the Ethics Board includes:

consideration of complaints submitted by natural and legal persons and the delivery of an opinion on ethical offenses committed by the media;
handling complaints from media, media companies, and journalists and issuing an opinion in the event of a violation of the code of ethics, or a restriction on the media’s freedom of expression;
expressing an opinion on issues related to the threat or influence of the media, the deterioration of the state of the media sector, and the editorial autonomy or independence, or other circumstances in which the media can pursue its objectives
the organisation of public conferences presenting the Ethics Board's expertise, and expert reports on various issues of media ethics, activity and environmental research and survey results.

As of April 2025, the Ethics Board consists of:

Toms Ostrovskis, delegated by “TVNET GRUPA”;
Skaidrīte Lasmane, delegated by Latvian Journalist` Association;
Aleksandrs Mirlins, delegated by the Association of Press Publishers;
Guntars Līcis, delegated by “Latvijas Mediji”;
Anda Rožukalne, delegated by Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs, "Ilgtspējas fonds";
Baiba Liepiņa, delegated by Latvian Advertising Association;
Kristers Pļešakovs, delegated by Latvian Broadcasting Association;
Andrejs Mēters, delegated by Ltd “All Media Latvia”

The Chairman of the Ethics Board is Andrejs Mēters; Deputy Chairman – Toms Ostrovskis.

Decisions of the Ethics Board are available in the section Ethics Council`s decisions (in Latvian).

Practice of the Latvian Media Ethics Board

In 2024, the Latvian Media Ethics Council prepared a report on the practice of applying its Code of Media Ethics, examining complaints received over the past five years. The report includes information not only from 70 publicly available opinions, but also from numerous letters in which, without providing a formal opinion, the Ethics Board explained and assessed the situation to complainants and the media, guided by media ethics, freedom of expression and other fundamental journalistic values. Download the report. in English.