Latvian public service media under pressure for Poland-Belarus coverage

To quote a conservative Latvian parliamentarian, there is a “culture war” going on between Latvian conservatives and the perceived “liberal” views of editors and reporters at Latvian public service television (LTV) and radio (LR) mainly over LTV's coverage of humanitarian and human rights issues with regard to people trapped in winter conditions near the Polish-Belarus border. LTV has spoken to Polish NGOs helping some of those trapped, but also reports that what is going on is hybrid warfare using mainly innocent or duped migrants in the service of the cynical, aggressive and repressive Lukashenko regime. Talking about humanitarian and human rights issues is seem by some Latvian conservatives on Twitter as serving “the enemy” in a hybrid war and they are asking that steps be taken against LTV and also LR. In response, the Latvian Association of Journalists issued this statement, which I quickly and loosely translated, aided by the translator function on MS Word,

The Board of the Latvian Association of Journalists considers the political pressure against public service media felt in relation to the coverage of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border to be unacceptable

The situation has been tense on the Belarus-Poland border for a long time. Encouraged by the Belarusian authorities, hundreds and even thousands of asylum seekers are trying to cross the border. While it is clear that the crisis has been purposefully caused, a large number of people stuck at the…