Who decided to put an end to Russian radio stations?

The deputy from "New Unity" decided to play ahead!

As broadcasting in Russian on public radio - Latvian Radio 4 - has come to an end this year, the chairman of the National Council for Electronic Media, Ivars Abolins, decided to take on commercial radio stations. This means that after the transitional period, licenses for broadcasting in Russian will be revoked or not renewed.

His ideas inspired Saeima deputy from "New Unity" Janis Zarins, who apparently decided to get ahead of his colleagues from the National Alliance and be the first to submit the relevant amendments to the now-open law on electronic media.

What do the amendments proposed by the 25-year-old politician, who unexpectedly became a deputy in June last year, instead of the former Minister of Regional Development and Smart Administration R. Chudars, entail?

"To supplement Article 18 with a new part 2_2 in the following wording:

"(2_2) The broadcasting license for the Radio program is issued for broadcasting only in the Latvian language."

To state the second part of Article 28 in the following wording:

"(2_1) The radio program of the electronic mass medium is broadcast in the Latvian language. A transmission or a fragment of a transmission in a foreign language is translated into Latvian. The provisions of this part do not apply to language learning programs, interactive live broadcasts (when communication is established between participants and listeners during a live broadcast), performances of works, and transmissions of interstate cooperation during a live broadcast."

To supplement the Transitional Provisions with a new point 49 in the following wording:

"49. The second part of Article 28 of this law applies from January 21, 2034. An electronic mass medium, for which the issued broadcasting license does not allow broadcasting the radio program in Latvian, must request the National Council for Electronic Media to amend the issued broadcasting license and change the program language to Latvian by November 21, 2033. If no application is submitted to the National Council for Electronic Media to change the language of the radio program to Latvian by November 21, 2033, the National Council for Electronic Media will decide to revoke the broadcasting license for the radio program in a foreign language from January 21, 2034."

In simple terms, within a maximum of 8 years, there will not be a single private radio station in the country in a language that is native to 37% of the population.