Latvia is living in an information space in which Russian language is absolutely dominant, said chairman of National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) Ivars Āboliņš in an interview to Latvijas Radio on Wednesday, the 4th of January.
He said there are 252 media available in Latvia. 127 of them broadcast in Russian language and only 42 broadcast in Latvian language.
«We are living in an information space that is absolutely dominated by Russian language, and this is after 121 media with ties to Russia were removed from Latvia’s information space.
A year ago Russian language dominance was even greater.
The argument that Russian-speakers had something taken from them is untrue, because a very, very, very large portion of content is showed in Russian language, whereas Latvian-speakers have a comparatively smaller representation,» said Āboliņš.
He mentioned that the Electronic Mass Media Law and Public Media Law detail the need to produce content in the language of national minorities, as well as foreign languages, but nothing is said about producing content in specifically Russian language. But this language is a priority in both public and commercial media.
«The law mentions multiple national minority languages in use in Latvia. For this reason we see no requirement to continue the absolute dominance of Russian language,» said Āboliņš, adding that Latvijas Radio 4 positions itself as a programme for national minorities.
NEPLP chairman also stressed that if Latvia wants a strong information space, it is necessary to strengthen content in Latvian language, because the proportion of content available in Russian language is already enormous. «We can only add more content in Latvian language so that it matches the amount available in Russian language. Supporting content in Russian language to increase the dominance of Russian language in Latvia’s information space every more is absolutely wrong, and Latvia should not do this now,» said Āboliņš.
He also stressed that Latvia’s media ecosystem can be strong only when public and commercial media are strong and are able to reach their audience.
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