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the association “Mother Tongue” (Dzimta valoda), which organized the
collection of signatures to initiate the referendum. He singled out PBK, which
devoted considerable air time – estimated to be worth more than LVL 100,000 –
to the signature-gathering campaign. 259 On the TV 3 programme Neka Personiga
on 13 May 2012, Rihards Kozlovskis, the minister of the interior, clearly stated
that the referendum organizers had received money from Russia. 260
The two other Russian television channels in Latvia, REN TV Baltic and NTV
Mir, are registered in the United Kingdom rather than Latvia, and therefore
subject to Ofcom (UK) regulation. Ofcom is the independent British media
regulator and the competition authority for the British communications
industries. 261 On 24 September 2012 Ofcom published a bulletin stating that it
acknowledged the fact that the Russian channels in Latvia had violated British
media regulations. Both were registered under a UK broadcasting licence by
BMA. 262 In the autumn of 2011 the two channels broadcast videos calling on
people to sign up for the language referendum. The regulator concluded that the
two channels were not respecting political neutrality; and that there was no clear
distinction between advertising and media content, which misled the audience.
Both channels used their prime time slots before the referendum to broadcast an
appeal: “On the CVK website www.cvk.lv, find the nearest place where
signatures for Russian language as the second official language are being
collected, and give your vote. By saving time, you will lose the right to speak
your native language. Only till November 30”. Neither channel indicated who the
client for the advertisement was. Hence, it passed it off as the editorial opinion of
the channel. This attempt to interfere in the political process raised concerns
among a large part of the population of Latvia, and an understanding that Russia
is not a neutral observer of the political process in Latvia.
4.4.3 The Russian Media and the Clash of Values
In addition to entertainment and coverage of contemporary events, the Russian
media promotes certain values in foreign countries, including Latvia. One of the
topics related to such values in the Russian media is the idea that the victory of
the Soviet Union in 1945 is evidence of Soviet/Russian power and muscle.
Another preferred subject is the Russian Orthodox Church and its traditional
259 See “Latvian Security Police: referendum could be financed by Russia”,
http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/latvija/411425-
dp_referenduma_finansejums_varetu_but_nacis_no_krievijas.
260 Interior affairs minister: money came from Russia too, available at
http://nra.lv/latvija/politika/71815-iekslietu-ministrs-krievu-valodas-referendumam-nauda-naca-arino-krievijas.htm.
261 See “What is Ofcom”, http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/what-is-ofcom/.
262 See Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin, no. 214, 24 September 2012,
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/enforcement/broadcast-bulletins/obb214/obb214.pdf.
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