Integration monitor is a daily Latvian press digest on ethnic minority and society integration issues. The Monitor reviews the biggest Latvian dailies: Diena, Latvijas Avize, Neatkariga (in Latvian language), Vesti Segodnya (in Russian language). In specific cases other information sources are used. Latvian Centre for Human Rights is not responsible for information published by the media.

• Minister of Interior: there are no organised racist groups in Latvia
• An interview with the director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies Ilze Brands Kehris about ethnic integration in Latvia

‘There are no organised groups of racists in Latvia; the recent attacks against representatives of other races are individual cases, committed by rude and drunk individuals,’ stated Minister of Interior Eriks Jekabsons. The Minister believes that similar cases take place in all EU countries.

‘There are no organised groups of racists in Latvia; the recent attacks against representatives of other races are individual cases, committed by rude and drunk individuals, stated Minister of Interior Eriks Jekabsons. The Minister believes that similar cases take place in all EU countries. Diena sharply criticises the statement of the Minister and points to a number of extremist organisations propagandising aggressive phobias on the Internet and newspapers. The daily also reports that the persons, who committed attacks on the Indian cook and Jewish rabbi in Riga Old Town, belong to the so-called informal group of skinheads. The newspaper welcomes the decision of the police to press charges for incitement of national hatred in the case of the Egyptian citizen who was also attacked in Riga.

Vesti Segodnya prints an interview with the director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies Ilze Brands Kehris. The director of the centre points to the necessity to revise the National Programme The Integration of Society in Latvia and take more active steps to combat discrimination. Regarding ratification of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in Latvia, Ilze Brands Kehris criticises the decision of Latvia to introduce to the Convention the definition of national minority which provides that national minorities are only those representatives of national minorities who are Latvian citizens.