Latvia Uses Repressive Means To Restrict Media Freedom - Latvian Journalist

The Latvian authorities use repressive methods to restrict freedom of the press in a bid to silence alternative voices, former editor-in-chief of the Baltnews portal, Andrey Yakovlev, said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2021) The Latvian authorities use repressive methods to restrict freedom of the press in a bid to silence alternative voices, former editor-in-chief of the Baltnews portal, Andrey Yakovlev, said on Thursday.

The Russian-speaking journalist, who headed the news outlet two years ago and now works as a freelancer, said in December that the Latvian State Security Service (VDD) searched his home and office, seized a number of gadgets and conducted an eight-hour interrogation, as he was charged with a violation of European Union sanctions.

"I had a company that established the Baltnews.lv media outlet here [in Latvia]. This Latvian portal operated on a legal basis. But when I officially transferred the media, which was established and owned by my company, through the Latvian state registrar to another owner Rossiya Segodnya news agency I gave Latvian journalists working for Russian media the opportunity to register as journalists here in Latvia. It was not welcomed [by Latvia] and so this situation emerged," Yakovlev said in an interview with the RT broadcaster.

According to the journalist, the Latvian authorities have been scraping off alternative media in the country for at least the past 25 years, creating a "cordon sanitaire" around Russia.

Several Russian-speaking Latvian journalists, who worked with the Baltnews and Sputnik Latvia outlets, have been accused of violating EU sanctions. Their apartments were searched and they are under their own recognizance not to leave the country. Last month, the lower house of the Russian parliament urged European lawmakers to condemn such treatment of Russian-speaking reporters in Latvia, and the Baltic country's foreign ministry responded by saying that Moscow's claims were unfounded and pointed to Latvia's high position (22 out of 180 countries) in the 2020 media freedom ranking of the Reporters Without Borders organization.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Latvia's crackdown on Russian-speaking journalists, noting that the EU sanctions cited by Latvia concern only the general director of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Dmitry Kiselev, and cannot apply to all entities that work with the agency, especially those who work as freelance journalists.