Latvian Russian Union Slams Riga's Attempts To Ban Russian Broadcasters

RIGA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2020) The ban of RT channels in Latvia is a "pathetic" attempt to fight the so-called threat that the Latvian authorities made up themselves, Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, a former member of the European Parliament and a co-chair of the Latvian Russian Union, told Sputnik on Thursday.

The Latvian National Electronic Media Council said on Tuesday that it was banning seven RT channels, namely RT, RT HD, RT Arabic, RT Spanish, RT Documentary HD, RT Documentary, and RT TV, saying that they were owned by Rossiya Segodnya Director-General Dmitry Kiselev, who is under EU sanctions. Notably, RT and Rossiya Segodnya are two different legal entities and Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, is not under any EU sanctions.

"For me, it is just a comedic way to eliminate the danger created by the Latvian officials themselves. They have come up with it and they are fighting it," Mitrofanovs said.

The official went on to cite a recently adopted language bill as an example of Latvian authorities' attempt to reduce the broadcasting of cable Russian-language television channels despite their popularity with the population.

The legislation was initiated by President Egils Levits in a bid to curb what he considers Russia's rhetoric in the country. Among other things, the bill aims to make 80 percent of content on cable channels be broadcast in one of the EU official languages.

"After the bill's adoption, some lawmakers recalled that Russia did not only create tv content in Russian but also in English and other languages. So, theoretically, the 'evil hand of Russian propaganda' could still reach the defenseless Latvian viewer ... which meant that it was necessary to ban Russian channels that do not broadcast in Russian," Mitrofanovs noted.

Russian media in Baltic states have been frequently targeted by authorities. The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia of a coordinated crackdown on the media, which is not in line with the principle of freedom of expression.