Russia’s Permanent Representative says to OSCE about Latvia’s attack on Russian-language media resources – Politics
VIENNA, November 4. / TASS /. Latvia continues to attack the Russian and Russian-language media. This was stated on Thursday by the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, Russia’s Permanent Representative to this international organization, Alexander Lukashevich.
According to him, the Russian obligation “to once again raise the issue of gross and systematic violations by Latvia of its obligations in the field of the press and media pluralism.” “Last week we witnessed how unceremoniously Riga continued its attack on Russian and Russian-language media resources,” the permanent representative said.
Lukashevich drew attention to the fact that since October 26, by the decision of the Latvian media regulator, the license of one of the most popular information resources among the Russian-speaking population, the First Baltic Channel, has been deprived of its license, which is not the first time it has been attacked. “The situation with the First Baltic Channel once again confirms that the final Latvian authorities are completely” cleansing “the country’s media space from Russian and Russian-language media, and at the same time sources of information representing a point of view different from the political narratives of Riga,” Lukashevich said.
In addition, he announced that the Latvian state security service is investigating the criminal process against 14 freelance reporters who collaborated with the Russian editions Sputnik Latvia and Baltnews, who faces four years in prison. Lukashevich also raised the issue of the sentence to freedom of the well-known Latvian opposition publicist Yuri Alekseev, the founder of the popular Latvian Internet site “IMHO-Club”, who was convicted for materials on sensitive social and political topics.
“Consent Lukashevich”.
Lack of OSCE response
Lukashevich said that Russia was surprised by the absence of a speech by the representative on freedom of the media, Teresa Ribeiro, against Latvia’s persecution of representatives of the Russian-language press.
“We are surprised by the lack of a clear response from the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media,” Lukashevich said, Lukashevich said. …
Before this appeal to the OSCE representative, Lukashevich points out that Latvia continues to attack the Russian media.
Repression of the media
Lukashevich said the European Union directly condones repression of the media. He stated that Russia has no illusions about the situation in Latvia, since this is a practice of political censorship and repression that is well known from historical periods. At the same time, such social processes within the blocks of associations, as a rule, have consequences far beyond their borders, common approaches are formed within the blocks of associations, he added.
“Here is an example of the European Union, which its members are experimenting with human rights. maybe one should not comment on what is happening in other countries, “Lukashevich said.
According to the diplomat, “in the new EU countries, whose statehood, in fact, is being tested for consistency, including the maturity of management, such tendencies often take the form of a grotesque.” “And woe to those who fall into their oppressive flywheel,” he added.
Harassment of Russian-language media in Latvia
In early December 2020, the State Security Service (SGB) of Latvia detained several Russian-speaking journalists. Later, all the detainees were released on recognizance not to leave. In total, from December 2020 to March 2021, seven Latvian journalists collaborating with Russian media were searched in Riga. The official basis for criminal prosecution is violation of the sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation. The journalists cooperate with the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, whose head, Dmitry Kiselev, is under sanctions as an individual.
In mid-April this year, the State Security Service summoned five more local journalists for interrogation to present their potential status, collaborating with the information portal Sputnik Latvia and the Russian-language news agency Baltnews. In total, 14 journalists who collaborated with these Russian media outlets were prosecuted by the State Security Service. Their cases were transferred to the prosecutor’s office.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, previously called the detention of Russian-speaking journalists by the State Security Service of Latvia a punitive operation and demanded that the republic’s authorities answer directly for their actions, and not hide behind the EU sanctions policy.