EBU Joins Journalism Orgs In Sounding Alarm Over Latvia’s Plans To Remove Russian Language From Public Sector Media

deadline.com:

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has joined international journalism organisations in sounding the alarm over Latvia’s plans to remove the Russian language from public sector broadcasting, even though it is the mother tongue of one third of its 1.8 million population. “We are concerned that this new proposal will mean Russian speakers in Latvia will no longer have regular access to credible and fact-checked information, leaving them exposed to disinformation, fake news, and propaganda,” read a statement issued by the EBU and half a dozen journalism bodies. “The ability of public service media to provide vital information and connect with all of society is especially critical in light of Russia‘s aggression in Ukraine.” Latvia’s move to ban Russian-language content is included in the country’s revised national security measures which were approved by the Latvian parliament (Saeima) on September 28.

The updated framework, setting out the Baltic state’s strategy to deal with direct and indirect threats, features a number of measures devised in the wake of deteriorating relations with neighboring Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

At the beginning of this year, Latvia joined its Baltic neighbor Estonia in downgrading its diplomatic relations with Russia, sending its Russian ambassadors back to Moscow.

The new national security measures include a stipulation that as of January 1, 2026, all content on Latvian public media should be only in Latvian or a language that “belongs to the European cultural space”.