Latvija in brief

  • 2015-07-02

An RT subsidiary in Latvia?
According to Latvian TV show, Neka Personiga, the Russian state-funded television network Russia Today (RT), has requested permission to open a subsidiary in Latvia.  Akin to the pro-Kremlin news agency, Sputnik, RT distributes pro-Kremlin news in Russian, English, French, Spanish and Japanese.

According to to Neka Personinga, the Latvian Registry of Enterprises will review the necessary laws and documents. By the end of August, 2015, it will decide whether to allow RT to set up its Latvian subsidiary.
While RT’s director, Dmitry Kiselev, is blacklisted from European Union member states for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda, it would not prevent the agency from working in Latvia.

In April 2015, Sputnik set up a news service in Estonia. However, the Estonian Security Police told Lithuanian news portal, DELFI, that it had been unsuccessful in its recruitment drive.

Gaggles of Journalists
Over the last 6 months, journalists have been flocking to Riga. More than 800 foreign journalists from over 40 countries visited Latvia for its Presidency of the EU Council events, according to information published by the secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council.

Journalist attendance at the Presidency events exceeded 1,880 visits.
There were 5,710 TV reports produced on the Latvian Presidency by 142 television channels only on the basis of free-for-all Europe by Satellite content. The Latvian Presidency also received additional attention through countless written newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, blog posts and tweets.

Latvia assumed the rotating EU Presidency at the beginning of 2015 and upon completion of the six-month term passed it on to Luxembourg on July 1.