Integration monitor
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.
Авг. 8, 2012
- Justice Minister Janis Bordans: Russian is official language of the former occupant state
Vesti Segodnya reports about mistakes in an article published by the Justice Minister Janis Bordans in the party newspaper of the radical nationalist union “All for Latvia - For Fatherland and Freedom / Latvian National Independence Movement” (AFL-FFF/LNIM). The Minister writes about the initiative of AFL-FFF/LNIM to ban entrepreneurs from including foreign language proficiency requirement into the job contracts unless such requirement is exceptionally necessitated by communication with the foreigners. Vesti Segodnya points out that despite the Minister’s claim that the Constitution defines Latvia as a “nation-state of ethnic Latvians”, in fact Latvian Constitution does not provide such definition. Vesti Segodnya also suggests the Minister may be calling for a diplomatic scandal by declaring Russian “the official language of the former occupant state”: Russian Federation has never occupied the Republic of Latvia.