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The investigation is to determine whether PBK has violated the Law on Electronic Mass Media in broadcasting controversial news stories about the developments in Ukraine from February 25 to March 4 this year.

The suspected violations were reported by the Electronic Mass Media Council's Monitoring Center.

The council notes that, pursuant to Article 24 of the Law on Electronic Mass Media, the electronic mass media must ensure that their broadcasts present true and unbiased information about various facts and events, encourage opinion exchange, and conform to the generally-accepted journalistic and ethical principles.

Previously the Public Consultative Council of the Electronic Mass Media Council said it believed that several television channels controlled by the Russian government were disseminating tendentious and grossly misleading information hostile toward Latvia.

Yet before that, the Electronic Mass Media Council turned to television and radio regulators in Sweden and Great Britain inquiring about the TV channels Rossiya RTR and NTV-Mir that the two regulators are in charge of and that have their programs aired in Latvia, as well as requested recordings of news programs aired by PBK in Latvia this past January and February.

All three petitions deal with the Russian-language televisions' news stories about the recent events in Ukraine and whether they comply with the relevant laws of the European Union. According to the Latvian Electronic Mass Media Law, the mass media may not disseminate misleading information, be involved in kindling ethnic hatred, or advocate military conflicts or war.

Meanwhile, Baltijas Mediju alianse (Baltic Media Alliance, BMA) is planning to turn to courts, claiming that the Electronic Mass Media Council officials and other officials of Latvia were disseminating false and misleading information about PBK and other media of the BMA group.