Riga, Sept 24 (LETA) - The Latvian Association of Regional Media wants a law that would establish institutional support for regional media, similar to the financing of the State Culture Capital Fund.

Egita Jonane, a representative of the association, said at a meeting of the Latgale subcommittee of the parliamentary human rights and public affairs committee that this was necessary to prevent the money from being "managed" by political forces, because as soon as political power changes, the flow of money also changes depending on the politicians' wishes.

The representative of the Latvian Regional Media Association said that the Media Support Fund was originally created to support regional media, but currently the projects "feed" state media or media owned by foreigners.

Latgale media criticized the tender "Support for strengthening Latgale's information space" announced by the Defense Ministry, in which Tvnet and Apollo portals won, although they do not represent the regions. 

The association calls on the Culture Ministry to conduct analysis to define what a regional media is and what its criteria are. 

The Culture Ministry stressed that, with the change of political power, the ministry has made the support of regional media one of its priorities.