Latvia Plans To Stop Russian-Language Broadcast Starting From January 1

Latvia is planning to entirely stop the Russian-language broadcasting in the country on January 1 of the next year, Ivars Abolins, the head of the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP), said on Friday

RIGA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) Latvia is planning to entirely stop the Russian-language broadcasting in the country on January 1 of the next year, Ivars Abolins, the head of the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP), said on Friday.

At the moment, a number of Russian-language tv programs are only available on the budget-funded public LTV7 broadcaster.

"From January 1 of the next year, there will be no broadcasting for national minorities on LTV7. LTV7 will become a Latvian-language TV channel," Abolins said.

Thus, the share of Russian-language programs produced in Latvia will cease to exist in the Baltic country's television.

According to the NEPLP chairman, TV content for national minorities will be transferred to the LSM.

LV online platform. The media council believes that the creation of such a multimedia platform would cost around 440,000 Euros ($488,219).

On March 22, 2018, Latvia's parliament adopted amendments to its education laws mandating a gradual transition to educating in Latvian even in schools specifically set up for minority children starting in the 2019-2020 academic year. The full transition is supposed to be achieved by September 1, 2021.

Despite being a native language for about 40 percent of the Latvian population, the Russian language is classified as foreign.