Monitoring Media Pluralism in the Digital Era: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor in the European Member States and in Candidate Countries in 2023

MPM2023 results show that the situation of media pluralism at the level of regulation is satisfactory, as the supervisor of public media and the media environment regulatory body are relatively independent. At the political level, a gradual increase in PSM funding was achieved in 2023 after a long delay, but the PSM funding model still depends on political decisions. Still, Latvian media pluralism is threatened by the high concentration of the media environment and the stagnation of media revenues, which affect the indicators of media viability. The economic instability of media activity and the coexistence of several competing journalistic cultures (modern or professional, traditional, instrumental) determine an insufficient level of protection for journalists and limited opportunities to defend editorial independence. In the conditions of the small media market and the long-term existence of media-like municipal information leaflets, the activity of local and regional media is particularly endangered. Analysing the social aspects of media activity, the conclusions of this study also refer to the ambiguity of the definition of minority (minorities) in the regulation, as well as the insufficient amount of data on gender coverage in the news media. In the Latvian media environment, there is an appropriate understanding of media literacy, the impact of disinformation and protection against hate speech; however, the proposed solutions are fragmented, and they generally insufficiently strengthen the resilience of society against these challenges of the public communication environment.