Name day: Paula, Paulīne, Jasmīna

K?rlis Miksons / Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs Yesterday, 13:49 Media Authors: LSM English (Latvian Public Media) Latvian society is very interested in the economic situation in Latvia, but the performance of the Latvian Public Media (LSM) on this topic is assessed more critically this year than a year ago, according to the results of a population survey carried out by the Norstat polling agency. The survey was conducted between December 8th, 2025 and January 8th, 2026, by surveying 3,330 respondents online.

According to the Public Electronic Media Council (SEPLP), the public media regulator and watchdog which commissioned the research, LSM plays an important role in providing reliable information in emergency situations but could improve the depth and breadth of its economic coverage.

When asked to name up to three of the most pressing issues, respondents most often mentioned healthcare (37%), the state of Latvia's economy (30%), as well as families and demography (20%). Religion, moral issues and ethics were mentioned less often, as were sports and recreation, and European Union issues.

Compared to last year's survey, citizens who consume LSM - and thus are able to evaluate the content it creates - have become more critical of public media's ability to provide new and useful knowledge about entrepreneurship: if in all the previous three years (2023-2025) around 48% of LSM users assessed it positively, then this year they are 43%, and the drop is statistically significant.

The proportion of positive audience ratings has fallen the most for Latvian Television (from 48% to 42%) and Latvian Radio (from 48% to 41%), but the activities of the LSM.LV portal in this area have been evaluated equally as last year, with 46% of LSM users expressing a positive opinion both this year and last year.

According to survey data estimates, LSM is used at least once a week by three out of four (74%) Latvian residents, with no significant changes since 2023. Lower content consumption is still observed among ethnic minorities, with LSM reaching 60% of these residents at least once a week.

It should be emphasized that the survey of residents began even before the LSM, on January 1, 2026, closed the Russian-language Latvian Radio 4 channel completely.

Among the population that consumes public media content less than once every six months, one of the main reasons for this is the lack of content on topics of interest. Most often these respondents indicated the use of alternative media that are not created by professional media organizations such as chat rooms, direct messaging services, blogs and websites created by various organizations and individuals which, in the opinion of the respondents, offer them information that is not available elsewhere.

At the same time, the public's assessment of the quality of public media content remains high, with half of the respondents (51%) fully or partially agreeing that LSM content is of high quality, compared to 20% who fully or partially disagree, with the rest expressing a neutral assessment.

LSM also enjoys the highest level of trust among various information sources, receiving full or partial trust from 47% of respondents (48% last year), a neutral attitude or partial distrust being expressed by 29%, and complete distrust being expressed by 24% of respondents.

For comparison only 31% of respondents trust text generated by artificial intelligence chatbots even though more than half (53%) of Latvian residents use these tools at least once a week to learn or clarify facts.

Residents trust information and opinions published on social networks the least, which are assessed as reliable by only 17% of residents.

When naming the three most important sources of safe and reliable information in the event of an emergency situation in Latvia, for every second person (53%), it is information provided by public media.

Only 19% of residents noted information provided by commercial media, instead more often mentioning state aid services (33%) and communication with relatives or friends (26%).

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

© 2026, Use of any material either in part or in full is allowed only with the written permission of LSM.lv. [email?protected] Journalism Trust Initiative sertifikāts