Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Telecomunications

At the end of March, Matiss plans to visit Latgale Region together with the Culture Ministry's representatives in order to learn about the opportunities of establishing such a channel.

The minister stressed that residents in eastern Latvia are heavily influenced by Russia's media, and "we must find a way to counter this".

Creating a new television channel in Latgale also requires funding, which is yet to be found somewhere, and another issue concerns the content of the channel, the politician added.

As reported, in order to protect Latvia's information space, politicians are planning to create a Russian-language television channel for Latgale province, the Latvian Television show "De facto" reported on March 1. One of the possible ways to encourage residents of Latvia to choose local television channels over Russian channels could be a television channel for Latgale province – free of charge and in the Russian language.