The National Media Council of Latvia (NEPLP) has denied that the organization is carrying out a persecution of Russian after the closure of more than a hundred Russian-language programs because currently only «a very small part» is broadcast in Latvian.
«We now live in an information space where the Russian language completely dominates, and this even after 121 media outlets associated with Russia have been excluded from Latvia’s information space. A year ago, this dominance was even greater,» NEPLP director Ivars Abolinsh justified.
«Arguments that Russian speakers are being deprived of something do not correspond to reality, because people can see a large part of the content in Russian and a very small part in Latvian,» he has assured.
In that sense, Abolinsh remarked that if Latvia aspires to a solid information space, it is necessary to offer it in its own language, as the proportion of content in Russian is still «huge».
«We need to add more content in Latvian to bring it a little closer to the amount of content in Russian,» said Abolinsh, for whom including more media in that language «is absolutely wrong» as it would only serve to further perpetuate its dominance, he said in an interview for Latvian Radio.
Among the cancelled Russian content is the Kremlin-critical channel TV Rain, whose license was revoked for allegedly posing a threat to national security and public order, as Abolinsh himself said, who continues to close the door to negotiating with the channel to regain its broadcasting license since it «committed a serious violation of the law».
According to the NEPLP, the closure would be motivated by some of the contents of the channel, which would have shown Crimea as part of the territory of Russia in a graphic and to the alleged sympathies that a presenter would have shown towards the Russian Army, describing it as «ours».
The channel has denied this and has received support from other media and press organizations such as Reporters without Borders (RSF) and even from some illustrious critics of President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalni.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
