The leader of 14th Saeima political party For Stability! Aleksejs Rosļikovs has promised to not give interviews to information resources controlled by persons under international sanctions and used for propaganda, according to the politician.
Rosļikovs took the warning from Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) in regards to members of the party making various statements to Russian and Belarusian information resources used for propaganda purposes in a very positive manner. The Saeima deputy said VDD performs its duty by monitoring the public information space.
«In any case we must respect what VDD says,» said the leader of the party.
The warning did come as a surprise for the politician, as the interview he and his colleague Glorija Grevcova gave did not seem anti-governmental. He said it was about the first days after elections and the first visit by Latvia’s President Egils Levits. However, considering the geopolitical situation, interviews like that will not happen again, Rosļikovs promised.
For Stability! members were surprised when they received a written warning instead of VDD telling them to cease giving such interviews.
The party’s leader also said the service should provide a list of media to which parliamentarians are not allowed to give interviews. Different media actively try to communicate with politicians and ask them questions, said Rosļikovs, adding that he has no objective way to find out if the journalists who want to contact him are blacklisted.
This is why For Stability! representatives have submitted a number of question to VDD in regards to ways to identify sanctioned journalists, as well as what they should do if these media use political parties’ public position in their articles without asking the opinion of parties’ members.
More on this topic: Latvian State Security Service issues warning to For Stability! political party