National electronic media council (neplp) of latvia recently revoked the broadcasting licence of russia’s independent television station tv rain. this decision was met with criticism from many opposition figures in russia, as well as reporters without borders (rsf), who view tv rain as a source of independent information for russian-speakers about the war. the state security service of latvia (vdd) has been conducting an investigation concerning the incident at tv rain.
Order to cease broadcasting on 8 december has been followed, meaning tv rain will no longer be able to broadcast on cable television in latvia, which has a large russian-speaking population. earlier this month, the regulator fined the channel â¬10,000 for displaying a map in which occupied crimea was shown as part of russia’s territory.
Neplp explained its decision to revoke tv rain’s broadcasting licence, citing that it was convinced the tv rain management did not understand the severity of their infringements. the organization has also expressed solidarity with other russian media outlets operating from abroad, saying that “media freedom is being strangled” in russia. the decision was also due to tv rain being accused of providing content that supports moscow’s invasion of ukraine, as well as censuring it for calling the russian army “our army” in a piece about how to provide recruits with supplies. this led to the firing of one of the broadcaster’s hosts, alexei korostelyov. kremlin spokesperson dmitry peskov commented on the situation, noting that “some always think that there is a place better than home, that there is always more freedom than at home. this is one of the clearest examples that shows that these are the wrong illusions”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63871289?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
