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

"In our society, there is free circulation of information, and control and restrictive mechanisms are very limited," said Meisitis, adding that there were a lot of opportunities available to those who wished to find some specific content as the vast majority of households in Latvia had access to high-speed Internet.

In addition, Lattelecom wants the rules  the same for all providers of television services, said Meisitis.

He went on to say that Latvia-produced channels in Latvian language were the most popular with Lattelecom customers, but demand for some Russian-language channels is also very high. The most popular Russian-language channels in Latvia include channels registered in Latvia, which are monitored by the National Electronic Mass Media Council, as well as channels that are registered in, for instance, Great Britain or Sweden.

As reported, the National Alliance has called on its coalition partners – Unity and the Union of Greens and Farmers – to agree on a joint plan for restricting the broadcasting of Russian propaganda TV channels in Latvia. In the meantime, the coalition has decided that it will first wait for the parliamentary committee on national security to make proposals about restrictions on the Russian propaganda TV channels. "It is an absurd situation where the state-owned company Lattelecom, with a wide range of Kremlin TV channels in its package, effectively acts against Latvia's security interests," said National Alliance's Chairman Raivis Dzintars.