The Editor-in-Chief is elected to the position for a period of five years by the Public Electronic Media Council.
Brauna has extensive and experience in the media industry – from working as a reporter in print and in both public and comercial broadcast media. She was one of the founders of the weekly news magazine “Ir”, and also created the Investigative Journalism Department of Latvian Radio.
She has received several awards for her work, including the Latvian Journalists Association’s Excellence Award as Editor of the Year in 2020.
Media organizations have also supported Brauna’s candidacy. The Latvian Journalists Association noted in its letter of recommendation that Brauna has a strong understanding of the mission and role of public media in a democratic country, while the Baltic Media Centre of Excellence emphasized her previous contributions to the development of Latvian Radio’s content, and the strengthening of editorial responsibility.
Brauna has previously indicated that the main task of the LSM in the coming years will be to do everything possible to protect democracy and freedom in Latvia.
“Free media is one of the cornerstones of democracy, but the current global context – political and media processes – is not conducive to democracy or journalism. Given this context, it is critically important for LSM to work in two directions – one is to reach and address the widest possible audience, especially by developing content in the digital environment. The other direction is to protect public trust by focusing more on and talking to those groups of society that currently do not see themselves in LSM content,” Brown emphasized.
With the new LSM editor-in-chief taking office, two previous positions will be eliminated: editor-in-chief of Latvian Television and editor-in-chief of Latvian Radio, which were held by Sigita Roķe and Brauna, respectively.
Since January 1, 2025, Latvian Radio and Latvian Television have merged into Latvian Public Media (LSM) to create a unified public media entity.