Latvia's media regulator, the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) decided on June 6 to ban the distribution of the remaining 80 channels registered in Russia, which were available to Latvian viewers until now, lsm.lv reports.

Thus all Russia-based TV channels are now banned in the territory of Latvia.

NEPLP President Ivars Āboliņš told LETA that the decision was taken on the basis of the newly adopted Electronic Mass Media law amendments, which stipulate that channels registered in a country threatening the territorial integrity and independence of another country should not be operational in Latvia.

The decision will remain in force until Russia stops its war in Ukraine and returns the territory of Crimea to Ukraine.

The channels will disappear from Latvia's information space on June 9. After the cessation of hostilities, programs will theoretically be able to return to broadcasting in Latvia, Āboliņš said on Twitter.

The banned channels include, for example, the TV program E TV, Illuzion+, Kino24, Mir TV, Okhota i, Peretz!, Russian Illuzion and others.

NEPLP has already made a series of decisions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, banning major Kremlin propaganda channels in Latvia, both on television and on the Internet, but until now the approach was piecemeal with batches of channels steadily added to the broadcast blacklist.

With Monday's decision, that approach changes and simply no more TV channels registered in Russia will be broadcast in Latvia.