Baltic Media Alliance (BMA) has asked international organizations to evaluate the actions of regulatory authorities in Latvia and Lithuania regarding the launch of procedures to stop the distribution of Russian channels on local cable nets.

BMA informs that the media holding notified the Committee For Media Freedom of OSCE as well as the European Parliament after regulatory authorities in Latvia and Lithuania urged to restrict broadcasting of particular channels of BMA.

BMA takes the position that it is not diversity of opinions that splits the society, but the provocative claims that such diversity is harmful and the speculations of the need to limit it by banning the broadcast of the Russian retransmitting channels.

In an identical situation in Ukraine, Dunya Miyatovich, a representative of the OSCE Committee of media freedom, asked the regulatory authorities to not initiate any retaliatory measures regarding the broadcast of the channels in question. She said that ‘forbidding programs without any legal ground is a form of censorship; the interests of national security should not be contained at the cost of freedom of media. Even though I do criticize any kind of state propaganda and hatred as part of the informational war, every person has the right to receive information from as many sources as he/she likes. Switching off or ban of the channels is not a way to solve the issues; any potential problematic claims should be countered with the arguments and other statements.’

BMA’s spokesperson, Edzus Vejins, says that the local regulatory authorities need to realize the harm that they cause to the societal stability and democracy in Latvia. The bustling attempts to change the law ad hoc confirm both civil and professional inadequacy of the initiators of such changes.