Languages Carry Messages, Media Holds Its Breath

Michael Hedges September 1, 2014 Follow on Twitter

Language holds people together and tears them apart. In this post-modern media environment language crosses boundaries easily, conveying aspiration, nostalgia and every image in between. People are drawn to television, radio, newspapers and websites in the languages with which they feel most comfortable. This pluralism is widely admired, a freedom to sustain. Diversity, linguistic and cultural, can also be exploited.

Amendments to Lithuania’s law on public information, submitted to the Seimas (parliament) by President Dalia Grybauskaite, are among the latest efforts by Baltic States to counter broadcast content considered hostile from the Russian Federation’s well-honed media machine. If approved, broadcast licenses could be revoked and owners fined for “propagating and inciting war, infringing sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Lithuania,” reported delfi.lt (August 29). The national regulator’s role would be strengthened, the “concept of rebroadcasting” restructured and the broadcast content threshold raised to 90% from European Union countries.

“No one doubts today that information security is a part of national security,” said President Grybauskaite’s public statement. “Hostile propaganda, incitement of war and hatred as well as disinformation from abroad menace our country's democracy and security. We must take measures and more actively integrate into the European Union's information space.”

Lithuania’s Culture Ministry impaneled in August a working group of government and broadcasting leaders to tackle “propaganda against the State” and to “review legislation governing the activities of broadcasters and re-transmitters,” said its statement, reported Verslo Zinion (August 19). Also under consideration are means of increasing broadcasting production in official European Union languages.

“To withstand the flow of information directed against our State and its values, we must invite broadcasters to produce more content domestically, and re-broadcasters to pay more attention to the contents of re-broadcasted programs produced outside the EU,” said the statement from Culture Minister Sarunas Birutis. Legislative recommendations are expected in October but President Grybauskaite seems to have moved that initiative forward.

Lithuania’s national radio and television regulator LRTK suspended re-transmission of NTV Mir in March for broadcasting within Lithuania a Russian-produced documentary attempting to rewrite historical accounts of the storming by Soviet troops of the Vilnius television tower on January 13, 1991. With thousands of people surrounding the tower and broadcasting center, Soviet troops shot dead 14 and wounded 700 in what is considered a pivotal moment in the USSR’s decline. The NTV Mir documentary accused Lithuanian snipers of turning fire on their own citizens. The veracity challenged documentary was broadcast days after Lithuanian authorities arrested a former Soviet tank commander and Russian citizen suspected of participating in the bloody siege. The LRTK later suspended re-transmission of RTR Planata programs within Lithuania for questionable news coverage of events in Ukraine. Most cable and satellite TV distributors complied with the 90-day suspensions.

Viasat, owned by Swedish media house Modern Times Group (MTG), did not, saying its unique UK broadcast license made it exempt from Lithuanian regulation. NTV Mir is owned by Gazprom Media and RTR Planata is owned by the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK). MTG is a significant shareholder (39%) in Russian television broadcaster CTC Media and the last European broadcaster with holdings in the Russian Federation.

Proposed amendments to Lithuanian law will “clarify the definition of retransmission,” said presidential legal rights advisor Virginija Bukdiene, in reference to the Viasat exemption. All “electronic communications networks,” including pay-TV operators, would be required to comply with national law. “The Constitution guarantees the freedom to search for and get information,” explained Ms Bukdiene. “The Constitutional Court has interpreted this freedom of information as not only a right to be informed but a right to get the correct information, not disinformation.”

Today the three independent nations are European Union (EU) and NATO members and soon all will be Eurozone members. GDP growth rates in the three countries continue to expand. ICT usage is on par with Scandinavian countries. Citizens of the Baltic Republics are wary of aggressive Russian Federation tactics to destabilize Ukraine and their governments are concerned by the Russian-language disinformation.

“I believe that most Estonians are neither hysterical nor surprised by (Russian Federation) President (Vladimir) Putin’s behavior in Crimea,” observed Tartu University international relations professor Eiki Berg, quoted by the Christian Science Monitor (March 21). “This is very similar to what (Joseph) Stalin’s Soviet Union did in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.” The three Baltic States were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, promptly occupied by Nazi Germany a year later then “liberated” by the Soviet Union at the close of World War Two.

Two policies fundamental to the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR) have had lasting impact on the Baltic States, as well as other parts of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Under Stalin’s direction thousands of Russian workers were sent, in part, to industrialize the Baltic States. With them – and their families – came the “russification” policy, dating from Lenin’s day, making the Russian language an integral part of daily life.

Each of the Baltic States has sizable ethnic Russian minorities, nearly all direct descendents of the Stalin era workers. Ethnic Russians comprise nearly 40% of Latvia’s population, slightly less than a quarter of Estonian residents and about 6% in Lithuania. On the dissolution of the USSR many ethnic Russians in the Baltic States were unable to return to Russia, some unwilling. Lithuania immediately granted citizenship to ethnic Russians; Estonia and Latvia required language proficiency for citizenship but granted permanent residency to others. Once privileged during Soviet times with government positions and well-paying jobs, ethnic Russians in the Baltic States are now over-represented on the unemployment rolls.

On reclaiming independence from the USSR, broadcast and printed media in the Baltic States changed rapidly. State radio and television broadcasters had been cautiously distancing themselves from Soviet directives but once troops moved back to Russian territory transition to the European public broadcasting model, at least in theory, began moving forward. State controlled newspapers were either dissolved or privatized. New broadcasters and publishers emerged, some with local ownership, many more financed and organized with European and American investment. While Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian languages dominate the Baltic media sphere, Russian language outlets – generally with local owners – continue popular with ethnic Russians. And, too, television, radio, newspapers and websites from Russia in Russian are widely distributed.

“Older people are still influenced by Russia and Russian state media,” observed former Estonian state minister of transport and communications Raivo Vare to Deutsche Welle (August 23). Younger people, he calls them Eurorussians, are “largely integrated.”

Twenty-five years ago – August 23, 1989 - two million citizens of the Soviet Baltic Republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania gathered hands to protest their authoritarian rulers. The precise time of the demonstration was coordinated through radio broadcasts, smartphones and the internet yet unknown. Within half a year the three nations began holding elections and declaring independence from the USSR. The organized peaceful protest was called the Baltic Way and remains in the collective memory.

Latvia’s National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) suspended re-transmission of RTR Planata programs in April, also for 90-days, citing national security interests. News reports on RTR Planata of events in Ukraine, said a Latvian Security Service finding quoted by AP (April 7), were “dominated by the view that despite international law, the president of the Russian Federation has every right to use the military in Ukraine to defend Russian speakers.” Viasat also declined to suspend RTR Planeta broadcasts to Latvia.

Like blocking a website or banning a newspaper, suspending broadcast or re-transmission of a television channel, however complete, brings with it certain risk of unintended consequences. Concluding that something very good or very bad is being hidden away some people will move heaven and earth to find it, share it and talk about it. The errant broadcaster suffers only marginal disruption and benefits greatly from all the publicity.

Suspicions persist, with some credibility, about loyalties or, perhaps, intentions of privately owned Russian language media in the Baltic States. “Russian-language media outlets in Lithuania are directly influenced and controlled by the executor's of Russia's information policy,” said a report by the Lithuanian State Security Service, quoted by delfi-lt (August 26). Singled out was First Baltic Channel (PBK), owned by Baltic Media Alliance (BMA), as “one of Russia's instruments of influence for the implementation of informational and ideological policy goals.” The Lithuanian chapter of Transparency International condemned PBK as lacking ownership and editorial transparency. PBK broadcast the aforementioned notorious Russian-produced documentary, after which expressing “regret” for offending anybody. Media watchers in the Baltic States allege BMA, based in Riga, Latvia and operating several television channels that re-broadcast programs produced by Russian State television, receives financial support from the Russian Federation.

Latvian regulator NEPLP began a review in July of PBK, Pro100TV and radio station Avtoradio for presenting “biased opinions on the Ukraine crisis.”  Pro100TV is a cable channel, ownership unclear, broadcasting Russian-language talk shows from TVC Moscow, owned by the City of Moscow. Avtoradio appears on FM in Riga, ownership also unclear, and is a format knock-off of the popular Russian adult-contemporary channel of the same name. The particular program questioned by the NEPLP was a Voice of Russia news block.

With doubts about some privately-owned Russian-language media and after years of shrinking the bloated remnants of State broadcasting, authorities in Estonia. Latvia and Lithuania are asking public broadcasters to expand outreach to Russian-speaking minorities.

Estonian public broadcaster ERR has offered a dedicated national Russian-language radio channel - Raadio 4 – since 1993. It posted a 13.1% reach share among 12 to 74 year olds in the most recent (March-May) TNS Emor national radio audience estimates. ERR’s second national TV channel – ETV2 – offers limited Russian-language programming. An Estonian Culture Ministry committee recommended in May the launch of a full-time Russian-language television channel. Estonian public broadcasting (ERR) CEO Margus Allikmaa said he needed €6.5 million a year to do the job. Politicians immediately began tracking backwards.

Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT offers a daily Russian-language program on its main radio channel along with news in Russian online. In July digital and cable channel LRT Kultura began carrying a Russian-language news program from Ukrainian TV Kanal 5.

Latvian public radio offers the mostly Russian-language Radio 4 Doma laukums. Public television channel LTV7 carries some Russian-language content. Creating a pan-Baltic Russian language television channel was proposed by Latvian public TV earlier this year, discussed and, finally, dismissed. “The whole… idea crashed as the countries have entirely different situations with their Russian-speaking populations,” said Lithuanian public TV (LTV) deputy director Rimvydas Paleckis, quoted by Lithuanian news portal BNS (August 28). A first draft suggested each public broadcaster chip in €2.5 million a year.

“In order to reduce the impact of Russian television the media space should be strengthened by offering not only news but also high quality entertainment in Russian,” observed Latvian MP Ingmars Lidaka, who served on the committee that proposed a pan-Baltic Russian-language television channel, quoted by delfi.lv (August 27). Baltic public broadcasters agreed to broadcast a daily 30-minute Russian language news program produced by RFE/RL.

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