The Parliamentary Commission Did Not Support the Candidacy of Siksnis for the Position of Member of the Council for Public Electronic Media 0 6

Last week, commission members heard the candidate but did not discuss his candidacy; instead, they began a discussion on reducing the number of members of the Council for Public Electronic Media (CPEM). Today, a vote was held in the commission regarding Siksnis. Only deputies Leila Rasima ('Progressives') and Janis Zarins ('New Unity') voted for further consideration of his candidacy. The other deputies present at the meeting were against, abstained, or did not vote.

The final decision on Siksnis's candidacy will be made at the Saeima meeting on November 13.

As reported, Siksnis's candidacy for the CPEM was nominated by the Council of the Memorandum of Cooperation between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the Cabinet of Ministers.

Siksnis was recognized as the best candidate during the re-competition. The decision was made by voting, and his candidacy was supported by all 13 members of the memorandum council present at the meeting on Wednesday. Unlike the previous competition, council members had to vote openly, and there was no option to abstain during the voting.

A total of ten applications were submitted for the competition, and six candidates advanced to the second round.

Siksnis, explaining his decision to apply for the competition, emphasized that the media is the field in which he has spent almost his entire professional life. He is interested in the development of this sector and sees opportunities to apply his experience.

Siksnis noted that although the legal unification of Latvian public media (LSM) has already taken place, the CPEM will have to monitor the actual unification over the next four years. According to him, the idea of the LSM board to create a unified editorial team is logical, but oversight is necessary to ensure that diversity of content is not lost in the process.

The CPEM must also monitor how effectively the increased funding for LSM will be utilized.

Siksnis was the chairman of the CPEM until August 3, 2025, and prior to that, he worked at the Baltic Media Excellence Center. He also served as an advisor to President Raimonds Vejonis on press issues from 2016 to 2018. Before that, Siksnis worked for 20 years at Latvian Radio, where he started as an editor of foreign news, then became a senior correspondent, head of the news service, head of development projects, and for three years was a board member and general director of Latvian Radio. Siksnis also has experience working at Latvian Television, where from 2007 to 2008 he was the host and author of the program 'De facto.'

Siksnis holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Faculty of Business, Management, and Economics of the University of Latvia and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia. He is proficient in English and Russian.

The decision to hold a new competition was made after the Saeima did not approve the candidacy of Belte for the position of CPEM member on June 19.

On June 19, deputies appointed Una Klapkalne and Sanita Upleja-Egermane as members of the CPEM.