Latvia gets another badge for banana republic repression

Well, Latvia got what it was “working” for – a drop of 20 places to 50^th place in the world in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. It was in “good” company, just three places behind the 47^th place United States, which has disgraced its own benchmark First Amendment press freedom protections by arresting journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in several cities.

Latvia earned its sharp drop, according to Reporters Without Borders, for two incidents this year – a raid by anti-corruption police on the newspaper Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze (NRA) and the detention, for 48 hours, of the editor of a website in Latvian which exposed what it claimed was suspcious e-mail correspondence between Riga mayor Nils Ušakovs and the Russian Embassy.

Unfortunately, I missed the NRA incident in this blog, or perhaps I thought that an investigation by the anti-corruption police (KNAB) was justified, since the newspaper is effectively controlled by Ventspils mayor, oligarch and accused money-laundered and economic criminal Aivars Lembergs. I may have been wrong.

In any event, if you scroll back through what I have posted during 2011, there is plenty of reason to consider the freedom of expression (not just the rights of journalists) to have been dragged down to the level of a black humor banana republic by several actions of the authorities. So this ranking is well deserved, though I am more worried about the decline of press freedom in the country where I grew up – the United States. I frequently refer to the clear language of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law...”. That, for me, sets the standard for freedom of the press and speech, and it is very disturbing that the US cannot live up to its own standards. What can one expect of Latvia.

Nonetheless, respecting the rights of journalists and the freedom of expression is a low cost enterprise. Just let them be. And it has been proven possible in a country with much the same historical experience and “post-Soviet” political culture as Latvia – it's neighbor to the north, Estonia, ranked number three in the press freedom index after Finland and Norway. Another lesson not learned by a country that seems to want a downward spiral into cheap-ass (no concentration camps, just petty and stupid repression) banana republic status. 

Latvia seeks to upgrade thought police, increase the chill

The Latvian government is considering a proposal to increase the powers of the Security Police to question and issue warnings to persons whose behavior "shows signs of illegal activity that could harm state security" according to a recent report (in Latvian) in Diena.

If adopted, the expanded powers -- aimed clearly at speech and expression, not actions-- would increase the chilling effect of the Security Police on free expression and debate. It would allow Security Police officers to question persons (including a summons to police facilities) and demand "explanations" for their activity.

The Security Police have already shown that their threshold for intervention against expression is at times very low and inconsistent. Last fall, the Security Police detained Dmitrijs Smirnovs, a college economics lecturer, for saying in a public discussion that he though people should not keep money in Latvia's banks nor Latvian lats. The authorities also questioned a musician who joked about not running off to take money out the bank during a concert. These incidents brought international attention to violations of freedom of expression by the Latvian Security Police.

Since then, there have been hundreds of mentions and discussions of the possible devaluation of the lat, the soundness of the Latvian financial system, and the wisdom of Latvia's economic policies, ranging from Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times (the former all being beyond the reach of the Security Police) to statements by local economists (Alf Vanags of BICEPS) and many bloggers and internet commentators. Except for Smirnovs, no one that I know of has been detained.

There have been cases of the Security Police acting against persons expressing radical political views, notably a neo-Nazi writing under the pen name Fenikss. His interrogation by the Security Police several weeks ago (the second in a year) indicates that the police of "prophylactic talks" dating back to the Soviet perestroika era KGB, was already being applied.

Before the late 1980s, the KGB would simply arrest dissidents, but it discovered (given its past as an all powerful institution of terror and repression) that it could silence or dampen dissent by the chilling effect alone. It was enough to have a talk with the KGB over coffee or tea to make one wonder whether expressing one's views was the smart thing to do.

Now the Security Police, looking more and more like the "liberal" era KGB (as it takes on the function of "overseeing" economic and political debate in society) is about to be handed more powers to exercise the "chilling effect" -- one of the most powerful arguments against any restrictions on free speech under at least US First Amendment practice. In other words, the mere threat of trouble will prevent people from speaking or writing who would otherwise do so.

Having, for the time being, abandoned its efforts to repress discussion of the economy and currency, the Security Police is now apparently being prepared to go after persons who discuss forms of resistance and disobedience to the current government's policies of extreme, sudden, and seemingly capricious cuts in public services and entitlements, effectively closing down the national health care system, reducing public education to a minimum and slashing pensions.

What the government fears is that there will be public discussion of such things as civil disobedience, tax resistance (why pay for nothing) and, of course, the harsher issue of street violence and rebellion as the fall draws closer and perhaps tens of thousands of Latvians will lose their unemployment benefits. While I believe violence will solve nothing, I think the possibility of new riots should be freely and openly discussed, without the Security Police interfering. If a person who has lost their job and unemployment benefit, who has seen one parent deprived of elective surgery and another retired but working relative (perhaps a surgeon) driven from their job by pension cuts, who sees their child's math teacher paid less than a street sweeper, that person understandably should be able to talk about the Latvian government and state in the words of the Bloodhound Gang: We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn!

Riga Baltic Pride effectively banned

The Baltic Pride march and public gathering, scheduled for May 16 in and near a park in downtown Riga, has effectively been banned by the city authorities. Technically, a gathering is still allowed at on the November 11 riverside road, where it was held last year and, in fact, would cause a greater disruption of through traffic than by cordoning off two streets for 30 minutes.
Two religious leaders Cardinal Pujats and Rev. Jānis Šmits were present at the Riga commission hearing (called to reconsider the permit granted to the Baltic Pride organizers). It is unclear whether they were allowed to attend the hearing, but both have demanded that any public activities by LGBT people be forbidden and condemned as immoral.
Mozaika, the Latvian LGBT organization sponsoring the event has started legal proceedings to overturn the commission's reversal of its earlier ruling. The second hearing was called after 34 out of 60 Riga City council deputies signed a letter demanding that the march permit be rescinded, citing public order (blocked streets) and "public morals". Several radical nationalist organizations have called for counterdemonstrations, both against the LGBT event and as a general protest against political and economic conditions in Latvia (apparently in an effort to gain attention on the assumption that the Baltic Pride could draw large crowds of curious and, to some extent, skeptical and hostile/to the gay event/ onlookers).
My take: this place gets more and more hopeless as democratic elections for local government approach and the most blatantly anti-democratic, authoritarian cryptofascist politicians make the most of this.
Lots of people will write how homophobic this is. OK, it is. What worries me as a heterosexual is that it is also freedom-of-speech-phobic or simply freedomphobic. And that affects all of us. Unlike sexual orientation, freedomphobia can spread and has spread in Latvia, but homo postsovieticus doesn't see that, won't see that and is happy and proud of not seeing that.
Time for an Ignorance Pride -- but hey, it has been going on for years!

Data inspectorate goes after Penguin Movement

The Latvian Data State Inspectorate has summoned the administrator of the website of the so-called Penguin Movement to explain what it claims were violations of laws and regulations with regard to handling and protecting personal data.

The claims related to several articles by the journalist and commentator Māris Zanders, where he allegorically and indirectly hinted at the mobile phone numbers and home locations of several Latvian politicians. The idea was that these unnamed persons with indirectly described numbers and addresses could get calls, text messages or "visits" by citizens wishing to express their dissatisfaction (or praise, you never know) of the policies and behavior  of the Latvian political elite.

The administrator of www.pingviniem.info, known by his first name Atis, has been asked to explain these articles in person at the Inspectorate on March 26.  Details of the letter to Atis (in Latvian) can be found here.  This summons could be considered the first serious attempt to harass the Penguins.

The Penguin Movement is an informal network of persons who support non-violent protests and direct action against what they see as an insensitive, arrogant and corrupt ruling elite in Latvia. It derives its name from a statement by former Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis in a New Year's Eve address that in cold weather (the present economic recession) the penguins (ordinary Latvian citizens) should huddle together. 

My advice -- move the website to a US or other foreign hosting location which values freedom of speech (especially concerning public figures) above so-called data security issues. 

"Another Latvia" bans picketing in Riga's Old Town

The Riga City Council has denied permits for two politically-oriented gatherings in Riga's Old Town, the site of recent street riots against the government and parliament (Saeima) that saw windows smashed, police vehicles overturned and stones thrown at the police.
A group calling itself the "Action Party"(Rīcības Partija) and headed by formed Euroskeptic Normunds Grostiņš, called for a gathering on Saturday, January 17 at the Riga Castle (the "official"but ramshackle residence of the Latvian president) followed by a march to the Saeima. The Action Party wants the present government replaced by a cabinet of non-political professionals. Their permit was denied but the group has appealed to the courts.
Another rally was planned by a student group, also near the Riga Castle, on Sunday, January 18. It has apparently cancelled its plans.
There are comments and appeals circulating on the internet asking people to defy the ban on gatherings in the Old Town and hinting at a repeat of the January 13 disorders if the police attempt to disperse or interfere with any unsanctioned public meetings.
These bans on free expression (even as precautions against more violence) are in the spirit of the repressive (and scared, from the government's viewpoint) "another Latvia" to which Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis said the country had awakened following a night of rioting.
Unfortunately, it appears that more confrontations are inevitable -- certain parts of society have had a taste of actively fighing authority and there is some justification for at least civil disobedience and resistance to bans on free expression. It is not a good path of development, but unavoidable and largely to be blamed on the pig-headed, deaf and corrupt political elite of this country.

Crackdown on expression could follow Riga riots

Latvian prime minister Ivars Godmanis said that it "is another Latvia" after the January 13 riots in Riga and that "other methods" would be used to quell violent protests. Speaking on a morning news show January 14, Godmanis hinted that further mass rallies in Riga's Old Town could be restricted or forbidden. The peaceful rally ahead of the unrest was organized by a new opposition party and supported by various non-governmental organizations. It was called to demand that President Valdis Zatlers dissolve the Latvian Parliament, the Saiema.

Following the rally in Riga's Dom Square a large crowd moved on to the nearby Saeima building where confrontations erupted between a small police contingent guarding the entrance to the building and the demonstrators. Snow, ice and eggs were thrown, followed by paving stones, smashing several windows. There were a number of injuries on both sides.

The rioting spilled over into other parts of the historic downtown, with youths overturning several police vehicles, smashing windows at the Finance Ministry and several shops and offices. A liquour store was looted. Charges by riot police were met with showers of stones and other objects, including uprooted street signs tossed as spears at both the police and store windows.

My assessment:

On one level, the ruling coalition in Latvia had this coming to it. Regardless of what the law and the book of etiquette says, a riot is a form of political struggle, though less focussed and clear than a well-defined non-violent protest. Seeing eggs and rocks fly at the Saeima building as a symbol of the ruling elite and Latvian politicians  made not only me but many others feel that they had this coming. 

If there is more severe repression against future protests, it will most likely escalate to the West European model of periodic clashes between the police and young streetfighters.

While this is unfortunate, especially for those suffering collateral damage -- looted stores, injured police and bystanders -- it now seems inevitable that street violence will become part of the political scene here and the threat of such violence -- a likely excuse for curbing non-violent expression. Post-Soviet authoritarian thinking in Latvia is strong, and it will not diminish but find some self-justification after the Riga riots. 

Latvian Security police praise "chilling effect" of their actions

The Latvian Security Police have praised the "chilling effect" of their own actions in detaining an economics lecturer, questioning a musician and starting criminal proceedings against both late last year.

Juris Leitietis, the head of the counter-terrorism unit of the Security Police said (according to press reports):

"Maybe some say that these two criminal proceedings are senseless, but already now one can say, that they have, to a certain degree, given results, because people think whether they are acting correctly when not thinking about their statements in the public space. Everyone--starting from journalists, show hosts and ending with individual (internet) chatters- after these criminal proceedings started to think somewhat how to express their thoughts," Leitietis said, adding that it was one of the goals, to ensure that people do not harm others, even unintentionally."

I am a journalist. I tend to write based on facts and different sources. I try to avoid imprudent assertions (though I will quote imprudent people as part of a good story)I am not intimidated by the authoritarian pig Juris Leitietis and his Neo-KGB. But I will make one statement of opinion about this kind of thinking: FUCK THE SECURITY POLICE! Clear and simple. 

My interview on free speech in Latvia on Swedish Radio (in Swedish)

Swedish Radio' s media program Publicerat' s producer and host Åke Pettersson called me on December 5 and did a phone interview in Swedish about the attacks on free speech in Latvia. He apparently picked up the information, among other sources, from this blog, to which he kindly put up a link. Those of you who understand Swedish (as spoken by Åke) and svartskallesvenska (Swedish with a bit of an immigrant accent :) as spoken by me) can listen to the program (dated December 7) on the internet here. 

More blog references to laughingstock Latvia

Another couple of mocking blog references to Latvia, deserved, unfortunately:

Blogging Stocks (stock market commentary in the US)

The American Spectator (blog on the portal of a conservative American magazine)

Under The Name of Reason (a personal blog)

And so I hope it will go on. Must the Latvian government be trained like a puppy by having its nose rubbed in...

"Arrest the Economists" --more ridicule of the banana republic

The liberal American "journal of politics and the arts", The New Republic (TNR), has noted the detention of Dmitrijs Smirnovs for his comments on the Latvian economy and currency. A blog, The Plank, on the TNR website draws the clear and simple conclusion:

"There is no excuse for such a breach of civil liberties, particularly in a country well on its way to full membership in the club of the west."

This is a simple enough English sentence for most of the Latvian government and even some of the parliament, the Saeima to read and understand. 

Thanks to an email from a friend for bringing this to my attention. The full post on the TNR blog can be read here (yes, the author does say there is  "an explanation" for Latvia's behavior).

Journalists publish open letter on free speech in Latvia

More than 20 Latvian journalists and media-related persons have published an open letter defending the freedom of expression against the actions of the Latvian Security Police.
The text of the letter can be found here. It is likely that other newspapers, besides Diena, will publish it. There is also an English-language version being prepared (I am the main author of both letters, others have contributed and edited).

The shame continues...

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)  has published (online and, presumably, in print) a story about the arrest of Dmitrijs Smirnovs. WSJ reporter Andrew Higgins notes that: 

Virtually no one here worries that Latvia is reverting to the ways of the Soviet Union, when the KGB hunted down dissidents and kept the population in cowed silence. Unlike Russia, where state-controlled media largely ignore bad news, Latvia has a vibrant free press.

I differ somewhat from this assessment. There are certain similarities between the Security Police and the Latvian KGB in the very last years of its existence, when it (if I recall correctly) also had a press secretary and a policy of warning and harassing certain types of dissent, rather than arresting dissidents and sending them to Siberian exile. The Security Police are operating in a manner similar to the KGB Lite of, say, 1990 - 1991.  To be sure, the Security Police are not the KGB of the 1970s and 1980s, nor even remotely like the Stalinist goons of earlier decades. 

Since the Security Police are  operating on orders of the government, I would also say that, intentionally or not, the government is pushing parts of the population toward "cowed silence". 

National Security chairman backs repression

Dzintars Jaundžeikars, chairman of the National Security Commission of the Latvian Parliament, the Saeima, has come out in favor of punishing rumor-mongers and making people "think before they speak" about matters of the national currency and economy.
His remarks during a radio broadcast were reported (non-Latvian speakers can try a Google translation from Latvian for a good laugh) by the Delfi.lv news portal, generating, as of this writing, more than 100 overwhelmingly critical and negative comments. Some comments, unfortunately, harked back to Jaundžeikars angry remarks about conspiracies against him and his family when his son was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence of drugs some time ago. This is not really relevant to the issue at hand, and Jaundžeikars remarks, even if imprudent and foolish, are covered by his right to free expression.

The word continues to spread

More publications are picking up the story of the repression of free speech in Latvia, among other things, making it clear that the actions of the Security Police have had a chilling effect on public discussion of economic issues. 

Here are some links (the text appears similar):

Monsters & Critics

Top News.in(India, as if they didn't have trouble closer to home)

Earth Times (a news portal)

The basic story looks like it came from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)

The snake coils to hibernate?

After a short press uproar and blogging frenzy, we are now entering that time when all that happened with the Latvian Security Police will be slowly forgotten, but not gone. This process applies to me, too, as I had to have my memory jogged by a comment writer to remember that this same police agency was sent after an old lady who wrote an angry letter to then Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis. Seems that getting nasty mail from citizens is part of the job of prime ministers, presidents and politicians generally. Even I, a journalist, am getting some abuse (an exposure to unintentional black humor of homo(post)sovieticus ) for my opinions expressed, most recently, on Delfi.lv. But apparently, this was not in Kalvitis job description, so send the cops...
But the fact is that one should have started reacting then, while the repression was still merely absurd. When the Security Police go after college lecturers and musicians, then it is serious (?). No! It was serious already with the pensioner, and with the people at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga who also (so say my sources) got visits from the Security Police around a year ago for even mentioning the "d"word. This was just a little past the peak of the party, real estate booming, a McDonald's style drive-in bank bringing cash in cups to a family who wants -- "oh yes, a trip to Egypt." Even then it was dangerous and worthy of repressive measures to hint that the big balagāns (carnival) was going to end and what that could, possibly, do to the lat.
The current Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, has made some ambiguous mumblings on Latvian Radio that maybe the Security Police didn't interpret the law quite right, but also letting everyone know that you still had to watch your mouth (or keyboard, or press). More waffled mutterings were heard from politicians on the What is Happening in Latvia (Kas notiek Latvijā) talk show, except from the otherwise maligned, so-called pro-Russian Jakovs Pliners and another Saeima deputy from his side of the political spectrum. Pliners at least said cleary that the government was violating the freedom of speech. While I may disagree with the colorful ex-educator (and blogger) on other issues, at least he wasn't mealy-mouthed.
That, probably, is the end of the issue in the public space. The snake has coiled up in its lair and will stay there until it all blows over. Then someone in our wise goverment will read or hear something (or maybe the snake itself will see it) and turn it loose again, but all of this will have been largely forgotten or written off as an aberration. Those scared into silence or overcautiousness will remain silent or confine their statements to the blandest assessments of the economic situation. And the ratchet of authoritarianism will have advance yet a few more notches.

Latvian police actions bring shock, disgrace and ridicule

Shock, disgrace and ridicule of the Latvian authorities and the country's purported democracy and freedom of expression are the result of the actions of the Security Police.

The latest to write about the recent detention of an academic and interrogation of a musician is Germany's leftish TAZ.

Meanwhile, blogger  Edward Hugh, who closely follows the Baltic economies, writes in one of his several blogs European Economonitor:

And it is my opinion that, despite all the attendant difficulties, devaluation is the best option among the unappetising list of unpleasant options presently available to Latvia (and the other Baltic states, and Bulgaria). Unfortunately, having reached this point there are simply no "pleasant" options available.

The curious thing is that for voicing this opinion I could go to prison in Latvia.

According to the Baltic Course online newspaper Ventspils University College lecturer Dmitrijs Smirnovs was detained for two days recently on suspicion of spreading rumors about the devaluation of the Latvian currency. He was detained in connection with an opinion that he had expressed during a debate about the development of the Latvian economy and the future of the Latvian banking and credit system. His arrest followed the publication of his opinion in Ventspils' local newspaper.

Largely citing Edward Hugh, the liberal American blog The American Prospect reports on the activities of the Latvian Security police.

I have already posted about the Index on Censorship Free Speech blog noting what is happening in Latvia.  Some of the first reports in English of the detention of Smirnovs, however, came from a local publication The Baltic Course.

While I am writing, the Google news search has also popped up an item on the Monsters&Critics portal. 

That's about it for now.

Was ist das denn? Eine Art Stasi?

For those of you that read German, here is an article in Der Standard, an Austrian daily:

http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=1227286870267

The headline is from a reader comment and asks: What is this? Some kind of Stasi? from the East German version of the KGB, the Staatsicherheits Dienst.

An outside comment from Mr. J. Fear :)

I got this interesting comment from someone who uses the name Jānis Bailes (or John Fear):

The actions of the state police against people speaking out on the economic and political situation bring to mind three possibilities.

1. The political class wants to cover up the impending economic crisis so that they can convert all their ill-gotten assets into cash/Swiss bank accounts before the average person figures out what is coming.

2. The state security institutions are pursuing a 'business as usual' approach to anybody that says anything the political class doesn't like.

3. The secret police have some rougue units that are acting out of their authority.


Well, let us do a little Sherlock Holmes deduction.

The third possibility can not be true because these kinds of suppression of freedom of speech have been going on for years (since the last independence). If the third possibility were true, then we should see an investigation of the secret police under the laws for instigating a financial crisis. Surely anybody that learns of what they are doing will really believe that they are trying cover up a real crisis that is coming.

The second possibility could be true, but is not a builder of confidence because any political and economic system built on suppression of free speech and transparency can not be durable. Free speech and transparency are fundamentals of capitalistic systems that recover from market shocks. The second possibility predicts continuous extreme economic and political crisis.

The first possibility has the best chance of being true. Think back to the days of Bank of Baltija when all the politicians withdrew their deposits just before the bank closed and cost the average Latvians $400 million dollars in losses. The political class certainly knows how to look after themselves and you can be sure that they have already moved all the cash they can to their offshore accounts.

Sincerely,

Janis Bailes

Repression works, it seems

I just watched an interview with Dmitrijs Smirnovs, the Ventspils University College (Ventspils Augstskola) instructor detained and questioned by the Latvian Security Police on Latvian Independent Television (LNT). Smirnovs described how his detention started with a phone call from the Security Police, then a meeting (he was transported to Riga) then detained for questioning. The most significant thing he said was the he would not be commenting on economic issues to the media any more. 

This is exactly what the chilling effect is all about. This is how it works, people are intimidated and keep their views to themselves. This is what the Latvian Security Police motherfuckers wanted, this is what the motherfuckers got. Let's call things and state agencies for what they are. 

Should have seen it coming

I found this article in the web version of the City Paper:

If you’re upset with Latvia’s Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, it’s probably best you don’t write and tell him so. State security police visited the home of Latvian citizen, Marija Vidina, who was described in the press as “an old lady,” to issue her a warning against possible “threats” made to the prime minister.

Vidina write the prime minister regularly. In this letter, Vidina wrote that Prime Minister Kalvitis was either “a complete idiot or had been hypnotized by Putin.” She also noted that President Vaira Vike-Freiberga’s recent move blocking two amendments to national security laws have “given a muzzle to the prime minister.” The security police warned her that is unacceptable to write to the PM in such a manner, though the police admit that no actual threat to state officials were established during the investigation, but that the “content of the letter reveals violation of a person’s dignity and reputation.” The security police’s press service confirmed they acted by request of the PM’s office..

Don't have the exact date, but it did happen in the last couple of years. People laughed it off. They won't laugh anymore as the repression spreads.

For Latvian readers, a comment on my Facebook page points out that this was also reported by the daily newspaper Diena: 

http://jauna.diena.lv/lat/politics/printed/peec_dusmiigas_veestules_kalviitim_pensionaari_apmeklee_droshiibas_policija