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

The working group will produce an alternative bill which might be put before the parliament for the first reading next week, the committee chairwoman, Inese Laizane (National Alliance), told LETA.

She said that the non-governmental organizations which had raised objections to the current bill would be invited to submit their suggestions for the alternative bill.

As reported, the Latvian parliament on May 3 sent to the committees for discussion the draft legislative amendments requiring that at least 90 percent of the content in the cable TV basic packages should be in the languages of the EU member states. The bill was proposed by the ruling Unity party which said they were seeking to limit the Kremlin propaganda in Latvia.

The Latvian Association of Electronic Communication (LEKA) and the Association of Electronic Communication Providers (ESKA) have both raised objections to the bill. They said the proposed legislative amendments will hinder broadcasts of such TV channels as All Baltic Media 3+ Russian-language channel and the Prague-based Current Time channel that both counteract the Russian propaganda. The TV service subscription fees are likely to grow, and such Russian-language channels as PBK, NTV Mir or RTR Rossiya will remain the most popular TV channels in the TV packages, thus, other entertainment or educational channels will not be included and the Russian-speaking audience in Latvia will be deprived of the choice, the business associations said.