Latvian Corruption Prevent and Combating Bureau (KNAB) keeps information regarding the authors and initiators of last year’s black PR campaign Ko visādi ventspilnieki.lv tev nestāsta [Tales spun by ventspilnieki.lv], which is why it is not possible to initiate proceedings over defamation and injuring dignity, says Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, who was one of the people who ended up on the receiving end of the black PR materials.
Prior to municipal elections, residents in Ventspils received printed materials that contained defamatory information about all opposition deputies of Ventspils City Council at the time. Neither the author, nor the source of financing of this «newspaper» was mentioned anywhere. It should be mentioned that Aivars Lembergs was under arrest at the time and had no way to reach out to residents and convince them to vote for him. This ‘black PR’ campaign also highly praised Lembergs and his party’s management style.
Kristovskis told BNN that the Administrative District Court Riga Courthouse has accepted the application from him, Dace Korna, Aivis Landmanis and Ivars Landmanis. On 22 August the court commenced administrative proceedings to lift the part of the 14 July 2022 decision by KNAB with which the law enforcement institution imposed limited access to their case.
Plaintiffs are confident KNAB’s imposed limited access status to information in the case in which these people are the victims, was imposed unjustifiably and in breach of Section 37 of the Law on Administrative Liability, which does not give KNAB the right to impose limited access status for the protection interests of perpetrators!
According to the plaintiffs, by doing this, KNAB failed to protect the interests of the victims and democratic and fair elections.
As a result of such behaviour from KNAB, the rights and opportunities of the plaintiffs, Latvian state and society, and voters in Ventspils to find out who initiated and carried out an especially severe violation of 2021 municipal elections, as well as their motives were severely limited.
Plaintiffs note that on 8 June 2021 they turned to KNAB with a request to be provided with information about the people who organised, ordered, financed and carried out the distribution of the 16-pages large black PR materials titled Ko visādi ventspilnieki.lv tev nestāsta [Tales spun by ventspilnieki.lv] in Latvian and Russian language during the pre-election period in Ventspils.
Also read: Corruption watchdog finds stacks of «black PR» news prints in a cellar in Ventspils
KNAB was asked to reveal the authors of the articles and caricatures published on those printed materials and beneficial owners – private and legal persons (political parties included), because the anonymous prints were discrediting candidates from New Unity and Latvian Association of Regions while also praising the political party For Latvia and Ventspils and its leader Aivars Lembergs over the course of five weeks.
Plaintiffs note it is confusing why information about the organisers, financiers, authors of articles and caricatures published in the black PR materials was not provided to them immediately after elections as they asked, so that they would be able to turn to court to defend their dignity and good name.
«Unfortunately, the information held by KNAB was never provided to the victims of this black PR campaign, even though the chief of KNAB Jēkabs Straume mentioned putting a stop to the distribution of the aforementioned printed materials in his interview to Latvijas Radio programme Krustpunktā on 27 May 2021. The chief of KNAB said all the relevant details about the people responsible for the violation are already known to him. Straume said he knows who did it, but he cannot prove it,» reminded Kristovskis.
He said confusion is only further increased by by fact that KNAB provided its report on the conclusion of the investigation more than a year after elections, which is not only in violation of reasonable inspection terms, as well as the bureau’s decision to impose limited access on information from the case.
The names and motives of the people who ordered, the people who produced the materials and the people who distributed these materials remain unknown to the victims after more then a year after the investigation. Moreover, KNAB has forbidden the victims – Ģ.V.Kristovskis, D.Korna, A.Landmanis and I.Landmanis – from freely using information about the blatant violation of their rights. Such behaviour from KNAB, according to plaintiffs, impeded their, society’s and journalists’ rights to acquire this information, Kristovskis said.
According to former opposition deputies, the distribution of anonymous printed materials had strongly distorted election results in Ventspils in 2021 and had secured the party For Ventspils and Latvia a small advantage, which ensured the party’s remainder in power in the city.