All About Latvia

Concerns Over the Future of the Largest Daily, Free Press

Jul 31

AleksPolitics, Revolutions, Society Comments Off

Published in the Global Voices Online:

With the ownership of the largest daily newspaper, Diena [LV], in question, many journalists in Latvia fear business interests and political influence would rule the news coverage ahead of the October parliamentary elections.

“Who is behind Diena,” read last week’s front page headline of the newsweekly Ir. “One year after a change in ownership there appeared a shadow of the oligarchs and a question: Does Latvia still have a free press?”

“The situation is very, very sad, because elections are coming,” a former Diena journalist Gunta Sloga told Swedish radio (SWE). “Many people will not be able to get objective information before the vote, and especially problematic it becomes for those who live in the countryside and do not have an access to the Internet.”

Sloga and a few others had quit the newspaper in 2009 over lack of transparency in the sale from the Swedish company Bonnier. The new owners installed a new manager, who lasted there almost a year. Meanwhile, the owners said the newspaper would maintain its professional integrity. Tralmaks unexpectedly quit in July, bringing the issue of integrity back into the light. The owners appointed Sergejs Ancupovs, the former press secretary for the former prime minister, Valdis Birkavs, as well as a leader of a think-tank connected to certain political parties, to run the newspaper.

On July 20, journalist Kārlis Streips wrote [LV] on his Politika.lv blog:

I’m in deep mourning for Diena. When the first professional journalists departed, I wrote that Diena would still be my newspaper. Now, I don’t have a newspaper in Latvia any more. For professional reasons, I’ll continue to subscribe, but it’ll be all.

In a video [LV] posted on the Diena newspaper’s web site, Ancupovs declined to answer questions about who approached him for this job.

“You know, we won’t be doing that kind of investigation,” he said, after explaining that the Diena newspaper will continue to maintain its objectivity and will not be a subject to political influence.

“Let’s assume that I have fallen from Mars,” he said, calling two journalists who interviewed him, “girls.”

Ancupovs said in a radio interview that the newspaper has always had a political influence. And it will continue to do so.

Jānis Buholcs writes [LV] that the recent change in Diena leadership means it is no longer necessary to hide under the pretense of being above the political influence. Buholcs responds to Ancupovs:

Media controlled by politicians is not the same as media that have their own political sympathies, which those openly espouse. The system of Putin and Berlusconi is not the same as an op-ed in a newspaper.

Pods.lv wonders [LV] if the newspaper’s purchase was “the most expensive election campaign”:

If we are to believe information that Diena and Dienas Bizness were paid for 7 million lats (US$13 million), then that’s a very expensive toy.

Let’s assume that the goal is to influence the election results with the help from these two media outlets and after that liquidate them both. I think it would be too expensive for an election campaign.

On the other hand, considering the amounts of money the plotters could get in many different public bids and purchase requests, then 7 million is nothing but small change.

Meet the Fighter for the Little Guy

Jul 28

AleksPolitics 3 Comments

RIGA – The Harmony Centre, a collective of political parties, continues to be the most popular political bloc in the Latvia. According to the most recent polls, almost 20 percent of Latvia’s citizens support the Harmony Center (SC). The crew includes the former communist leader – who sought to overthrow the new-born independent Latvian government 20 years ago (now a member of the European Parliament) – people (the very last paragraph of the link) who call the 1940 Stalin’s electoral farce “free and fair” elections, which then led to the surrender of Latvia’s independence to Moscow. This crew naturally enjoys support among mostly Russian-speaking population. And it is within reach of power come the october contest.

It just needs a gentle push to reach into the despair of ethnic Latvians, who naturally are more on the left side of the political spectrum (after all, the Social Democrats were the dominant party of the interwar democratic republic – up until the 1934 coup).

Maybe gambling on that, the SC had declared itself the New Left. It has dubbed itself a political movement that stands on the economic platform, pushing Latvia towards an egalitarian society, a society where the wealth is more or less equally spread among different layers of society. It aims to be the party of the little guy. A Little. Latvian. Guy.

Funded by the SC is a think-tank group called Reform Task Force Latvia. It hired Western economists, like Michael Hudson, to speak about the evils of the international lenders – who currently pay for Latvia’s budget deficit – and the philosophy of “neoliberalism” that has been poisoning this country for the last 20 years. “Economic policy deployed since independence has failed to implement policies guided by the classical economic tradition that created prosperity in the Transatlantic region and East Asia,” its Web site hails. “Instead, Latvia’s independence coincided with the ascendency of the now proven failure of neoliberal economic policy that accelerated its underdevelopment.”

What looks great on paper doesn’t transform well into reality. The SC supported amendments to the banking regulations, which would have slowed down the splitting up of the Parex bank, a requirement from the European Commission. According to the CEO of Parex, Nils Melngailis, it would have left the taxpayers, including the little guys, on the hook. They would have to pay the Parex owners an interest, which amounts to as much as 4.6 million lats ($9 million) a year.

The bill died. The SC turned to the Constitutional Court yesterday to see if the financial regulation is constitutional, in an attempt to fight for the guys who pay their bills.

Fighter for the little guy, they’re not.

Jul 27

AleksBeyond Latvia, Wacky Neighbor to the East 1 Comment

RIGA – I have wondered who was behind the new eased restrictions on residence permits to Latvia. Apparently, it’s Rietumu Banka.

Ansip finishes Baltic tour

Jul 13

AleksDoesn't Fit Anywhere Else Comments Off

Ansip’s meeting was part of a short tour through Latvia and Estonia in which he met with his government counterparts as well as prominent businessmen.

via Ansip finishes Baltic tour.

Hadn’t realized the Prime Minister of Estonia toured through, ahem, Estonia.

We could learn from our neighbors

Jul 12

AleksBeyond Latvia, Economy 3 Comments

RIGA – A teacher visits her students’ parents, who are behind on the utility bills. Her job is to urge the parents to pay on their debts and help the state to balance its budget.

Tax collectors, auditors, police officers’ salaries depend on how many fines they issue during their shift.

The once-or-twice-a-year audit of a business now becomes a monthly affair.

Someone stole a t-shirt from a supermarket. Someone else called the police. The authorities sealed the premises, conducted an audit of required documents for the goods at the store. The audit revealed some goods lacked proper documentation, which resulted in the confiscation of the goods. The goods were later resold at a state-owned second-hand store. Luckily, the supermarket’s owner knew when and where those goods would be delivered, so he bought them back at a cheap price, adding his two cents to the state treasury.

Journalists are required to subscribe to the state-owned newspapers where they work. They are also required to force their friends and relatives to subscribe to the newspapers.

Belarus, where this is a common place, is in need of hard cold cash to balance its budget. Minsk is running out of options as its relationship with Moscow has recently soured. And Minsk is not keen on adhering to the EU’s democratic principles, especially ahead of the 2011 presidential elections.

The three Baltic states stand as bastions of freedom and democracy, eager and willing to share their somewhat awkward transformation experience with their neighbors. The three small countries transformed from the Soviet-era command economy into the market paradise pretty quickly. They left the Soviet Union and join NATO and EU. Often, politicians and human rights from the Baltic countries travel to georgias and ukraines of the former Soviet Union to share the experience. Other times, politicians from over there come here to learn – or just drink beer at the Dome Square, or sunbathe at the Jurmala beach.

Maybe now, it’s time for Latvia to learn to balance its budget by means other than budget cuts and tax hikes?

P.S. According to Belarus’ own statistics, 77 percent of the state-owned enterprises are unable to compete on the global market. So, relying on the economy to bring much needed revenues to the state coffers is a waste.