• Minister of Education Ina Druviete is planning to meet with directors of ethnic minority schools
• Vesti Segodnya interviews the Ombudsman Juris Jansons
• 1,732 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation in 2013                             

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Minister of Education Ina Druviete is planning to meet with directors of ethnic minority schools in order to discuss used models of bilingual education. The Minister also is planning to give her subordinates task to elaborate methodology for ethnic minority schools for transfer of all subjects into Latvian language except native language and literature starting with 1 September 2018. On 4 February, political party the Russian Union of Latvia (ex-FHRUL) is planning to hold a picket for protection of education in Russian language.

In an interview with Vesti Segodnya the Ombudsman Juris Jansons says that it is a lie that he has ever called to close Russian language schools. Mr Jansons asserts that he wanted to draw attention at the education quality in ethnic minority schools and raise discussions on whether it is necessary to transfer secondary schools into Latvian language only. Regarding the situation with non-citizens, the Ombudsman blames certain NGOs as those mislead non-citizens saying that state should grant them citizenship automatically. In particular, the Ombudsman blames the Congress of Non-Citizens saying that establishment of such organisation will slow down naturalisation process even more. The Ombudsman is assured that Latvian non-citizens use the same social-economical rights equally with citizens and that the only exception for non-citizens are political rights – they cannot vote and to be elected.

1,732 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation in 2013 which is for 481 persons or 21% less than in 2012. According to the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, naturalisation speed continues to decrease in Latvia – 2,467 persons naturalised in 2011 and 2,213 in 2012. Diena, Vesti Segodnya

• Latvijas Avize: opinion of the Ombudsman and Latvian Human Rights Centre do not match
• Union of Citizens and Non-citizens: how will the Ombudsman regain trust after disclosing information to third party?
• Political scientist Andrejs Berdnikovs: Russian parents should mobilise

Latvijas Avize interviews the director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights Anhelita Kamenska. According to Ms Kamenska, the recent activities and statements of the Ombudsman Juris Jansons concerning non-citizens, bilingual education and minority schools raise concern about his independence. She refers to a letter by Ombudsman sent to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which criticises some Latvian NGOs for spreading misinformation about non-citizens. The issue had earlier been raised by Vineta Poriņa, an MP from the nationalist’s union, after the OSCE Human Dimension meeting. Ms Kamenska also draws attention to the differences in rights between citizens and non-citizens, and highlights areas where EU citizens enjoy more rights than non-citizens, who have stronger ties with the country. Ms Kamenska underlines the progress in minority schools in implementing bilingual education, and questions the purpose, the timing and the quality of Ombudsman’s research (a full report remains unavailable). She criticizes the Ombudsman for reporting teachers with inadequate Latvian language proficiency to state language inspectorate, and questions whether he is being perceived as independent. Ms Kamenska also sees no justification for the transfer of minority schools in solely the Latvian language, and suggests that the situations when the distribution of information by public bodies in foreign languages is justifiable be increased.

Co-chairman of NGO "The Union of Citizens and Non-citizens" Vladimirs Sokolovs published open letter to the Ombudsman Juris Jansons. Mr.Sokolovs reminds that at the end of 2013, representatives of the Ombudsman's Office visited several national minority schools and informed the State Language Centre about seven minority teachers, who spoke imperfect Latvian language; the state language inspectors punished six of these teachers. Mr.Sokolovs inquires who decided to record the personal data of teachers and disclose it to a third party? Mr.Sokolovs points out that the Ombudsman has broken trust by the disclosure and asks how the Ombudsman is going to regain it. Mr.Sokolovs also inquires how many Russian speaking citizens work at the Ombudsman's Office.

In an interview Vesti Segodnya political scientist Andrejs Berdnikovs compares how Russian speaking residents in Latvia and Mexican residents of the USA fight for their rights. Mr Berdnikov says that Mexicans achieved more rights by large protests and ongoing pressure on state authorities. On the contrary, Russian speakers in Latvia avoid radicalisation and thus change nothing about their rights, believes Mr Berdnikovs. Commenting the plans of the governing coalition to transfer education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language, Mr Berdnikovs says that it will be a test and will show whether people can be self organised stressing that active actions should come especially from parents of children who study in ethnic minority schools.

• Russia’s Ambassador to Latvia Aleksandr Veshnyakov met with the Minister of Education Ina Druviete

Latvijas Avize reports about a meeting of the Russia’s Ambassador to Latvia Aleksandr Veshnyakov and the Minister of Education Ina Druviete. The Ambassador clarified Russia’s plans to open Russian schools abroad saying that he doesn’t see a need for such schools in Latvia yet as Russian language and literature teaching in ethnic minority schools is at a high level. In response to the Ambassador’s concerns over the plan of the governing coalition to transfer education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language starting with 2018, the Minister Druviete said that there are no plans to close ethnic minority schools but 80% of subjects will be in Latvian language. In native language ethnic minorities will study only those subjects which are connected with their cultural identity.

• Latvijas Avize interviews the Ombudsman Juris Jansons
• Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee proposes to add the notion of hate speech in the Criminal Code
• Ambassador of Russian Federation to Latvia Aleksandr Veshnyakov comments Russia’s plans to open Russian schools abroad
• Vesti Segodnya reports about a round table of the leaders of Russian NGOs in Latvia

Latvijas Avize interviews the Ombudsman Juris Jansons. The Ombudsman does not agree with the idea that integration in Latvia should become mutual process and that also ethnic Latvians should integrate. The Ombudsman believes that such approach does not correspond to historical situation in Latvia. Mr Jansons criticizes the director of the Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Science who asserted that bilingual education is a story of success for Latvia and criticized the monitoring of education in ethnic minority schools conducted by the Ombudsman’s Office. Mr Jansons says that after such announcements there is nothing to talk about with the Ministry. The Ombudsman also criticizes politicians and NGOs, including the Latvian Centre for Human Rights, which have criticized the Ombudsman for his statements regarding the bilingual education and proposal to transfer secondary education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language only.

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee proposes to add the notion of hate speech in the Article 78 of the Criminal Code in order to limit misleading information and distribution of hateful ideology towards Latvia. Presently, the Article 78 stipulates liability for incitement of ethnic and racial hatred. The newspaper notes that the reason why the MPs discussed such proposal is a program broadcasted on the First Baltic Channel (which mostly rebroadcasts programs of the Russia’s First Channel) in October 2013. The program was about events in Vilnius (Lithuania) on 13 January 1991 and its authors claimed that the people who got killed during the surrounding of the Vilnius TV tower were killed not by the soviet militaries but by provokers from the protestors’ side. Such program caused scandal in Lithuania and in Latvia where the Channel is registered. The National Electronic Mass Media Council fined the First Baltic Channel for biased program and ask the General Prosecutor’s Office asking to evaluate whether there was hate speech in the program. However, the General Prosecutor’s Office following the conclusion of the Security did not find incitement of ethnic hatred in it.

Vesti Segodnya prints an interview with the Ambassador of Russian Federation to Latvia Aleksandr Veshnyakov. Commenting a recent statement by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov about Russia’s plans to open Russian schools abroad, the Ambassador said that the program of Russian schools abroad is not finalised and adopted yet. But regarding Latvian situation, the Ambassador believes that it is possible to speak about opening of Sunday schools or additional education, for instance establishing such school at the embassy. Mr Veshnyakov stresses that such system is practised by many countries.

Vesti Segodnya reports about a round table of the leaders of Russian NGOs in Latvia. The participants discussed various activities organised by NGOs and problems those face. One of the problems highlighted by many participants was lack of support from state and prejudiced attitude towards Russian NGOs by state institutions.

• Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma: sooner or later education in all state funded schools in Latvia will be in Latvian language only

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma stated that sooner or later education in all state funded schools in Latvia will be in Latvian language only. According to Mrs Straujuma, it is important to explore economic and social preconditions for such idea, to evaluate and to clarify it, but sooner or later it will happen. The newspaper notes that the true plans of the governing coalition regarding the bilingual education are unclear yet as recently the Minster of Education Ina Druviete denied the fact that education in Latvia will be in Latvian language only.