Latvia cancels political debates in Russian

Editor-in-chief of the Latvian public broadcaster (LTV) Sigita Roque, after consultations with the editorial board, decided to cancel the planned pre-election debates for the European Parliament in Russian, reported the portal LSM.lv, where the debates were supposed to take place.

As Roque explained, LTV planned to hold debates before the European elections not only in Latvian, but also in Russian, “in order to convey reliable and varied information about elections to various groups of society.”

“However, we must admit that when planning the content, we did not expect the reaction that it would cause inviting candidates for the European Parliament to take part in debates in which the main language is Russian, before these elections to the European Parliament”, – she added.

The editor-in-chief of LTV added that debates with candidates for the European Parliament in Russian will be cancelled, but her position that the public broadcaster should continue broadcasting in Russian has not changed.

The portal LSM.lv planned to broadcast the pre-election debates in the European Parliament in Russian. At the same time, their participants had the opportunity to speak in Latvian, and simultaneous translation was also provided.

Famous public figures in Latvia spoke out against the Russian-language debates. Several politicians also publicly demanded to cancel them as part of their election campaigns, and some political forces refused to participate in the debates altogether.

Prepared by: Nina Petrovich