Latvia: Ukraine Crisis Prompts Ban on Russian TV Broadcasts
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Version 0 of 1. Latvia is joining Lithuania in banning Russian state television broadcasts because it found that several programs about the Ukraine crisis were tendentious and not in its national security interests. A three-month suspension of broadcasts of all of the programs of a Russian channel, Rossiya RTR, begins Tuesday, following a decision by the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council, the council’s spokeswoman, Sanita Blomniece, said Monday. The Latvian Security Police said events in Ukraine in several Rossiya reports last month were presented in a way that justified “military aggression against a sovereign state.” It also said they were “dominated by the view that despite international law,” Russia “has every right to use the military in Ukraine to defend Russian speakers.” A Russian Foreign Ministry official denounced the Latvian decision. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have sizable ethnic Russian minorities and are concerned about the Kremlin’s declaration that it will protect Russians abroad. |