Latvian Parliament supports ban on public Russian-language media outlets activities from 2026

by IWasWearingEyeliner

7 comments

  1. *Latvian deputies today, on September 28, approved a draft concept of national security, one of the points of which provides for the closure of Latvian public media outlets in the Russian language, according to Delfi.*

    *Latvian deputies today, on September 28, approved a draft concept of national security, one of the points that provides for the closure of Latvian public media outlets in the Russian language.*

    *This project was supported by 68 parliamentarians, while 10 deputies voted against it*.

    **Important details from another article:**

    [Saeima approves updated National Security concept for Latvia](https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/defense/28.09.2023-saeima-approves-updated-national-security-concept-for-latvia.a525735/)

    *The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a “unified information space”. However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM’s Russian-language service. LSM’s English language service would likely not be affected, provided the English language is deemed to belong to the European cultural space.*

    In short, Latvia will no longer be funding public broadcast in Russian language. As far as I understand this affects two media outlets: Latvian Television (LTV) and Latvian Radio (LR)

  2. >closure of **Latvian public media outlets** in the Russian language

    Before anyone loses their shit. Russian is not an official language in Latvia, nor should it be.

  3. Banning a language spoken by a significant minority on national security ground is a risky move tbh… it’s like saying they are security threats. And whose information are they gonna rely on? Russian media?

  4. Serious question – is this not a violation of EU rules regarding national minorities?

    Edit: unexpected downvotes, I’m just asking if EU law regulates this regarding the rights of national minorities. I seriously don’t know.

  6. Good.

    Honestly l, whenever I read about Russians in Baltic countries, it’s like they’re always doing stupid shit.

    Proudly declaring “I am Russian”, putting stickers on their cars, while enjoying all the benefits of living in EU. Not giving a damn about learning the official language even at A2 level. And then they cry about being oppressed, holy shit.

    If I was given an opportunity to live in a country with an actual democracy and civil society, I would do my best to assimilate, or at the very least integrate to an acceptable degree in that country, not praise the totalitarian warmongering shithole I was born in.

  7. > should be only in Latvian or a language that “belongs to the European cultural space”.

    Hmm…

    > which the concept says create a “unified information space”.

    *Hmm…*

    > LSM’s English language service would likely not be affected, provided the English language is deemed to belong to the European cultural space.

    ***Hmm***-waitaminute, I just got an idea for possibly the funniest possible result of this whole war. Someone call the French!

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