Stories from Quick Reads and Latvia
European Citizens Call for the Protection of Media Pluralism
“European institutions should safeguard the right to free, independent and pluralistic information”. The quote, from the Media Initiative website, summarizes the main idea behind a pan-European campaign that aims at urging the European Commission to draft a Directive to protect Media Pluralism and Press Freedom. The Media Initiative is running a European Citizens’ Initiative – a tool...
‘Good Morning Earth!': Tweets from Space
Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield), a Canadian astronaut “currently living in space aboard ISS as Commander of [Expedition 35],” has been tweeting his amazing photos of the Earth daily since Dec. 2012.
Latvia: Jackie Chan Blogs About Filming in Jelgava
Facebook page “If you like Latvia, Latvia likes you” highlights movie star Jackie Chan's April 2012 blog post, in which he shared his “impressions about 15 day long filming of movie stunts in Jelgava, Latvia, plus lots of photos. He tells about flying experience in Aerodium vertical wind tunnel, which...
Latvia: Flagging for Free Speech
Juris Kaža of Free Speech Emergency in Latvia reports that Latvian security police has closed an investigation into an Internet call to desecrate the Latvian flag, which is illegal in the country. The case was closed as there was no evidence of any victim of flag burning.
CEE: “Spotted by Locals”
Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted...
Latvia: Graffiti and Decay in Riga
Juris Kaža of Failed State Latvia? writes about graffiti and social decay in Latvian capital Riga.
Latvia: Talk Show Host Fired for “Breach of Good Taste”
Free Speech Emergency in Latvia reports that a Latvian-American talk show host has been fired from LTV for calling certain politicians “whores.”
CEE: Top 10 Worldwide Download Speed
Watcher.com.ua reports [uk] that, according to a 6-month study of 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries conducted by Pando Networks, Romania (1,909KBps), Bulgaria (1,611KBps), Lithuania (1,462KBps) and Latvia (1,377KBps) have the second, third, fourth and fifth highest download speeds in the world, while Ukraine has been...
Latvia: Parliamentary Elections Results
Andrew Wilson of OpenDemocracy.net and Juris Kaža of Failed State Latvia? analyze the results of the Sep. 17 parliamentary elections in Latvia.
Latvia: Electoral Expectations
Veiko Spolitis of Baltic blog spans the pollster field in the runup to the 17 September parliamentary elections in Latvia and finds that a great but decreasing proportion of voters are still undecided.
Baltics-Sweden: Twenty Years of Independence
Albatros of Litauen blog reports about [ger] Swedish celebrations of 20 years of independence for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and how Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, apologised to his Baltic colleagues for recognizing soviet annexation during World War II.
Latvia: Uncertain Election Outcome
Veikko Spolitis of Baltic blog discusses the uncertain political situation in Latvia subsequent to the 23 July referendum resulting in a call for new parliamentary elections on September 17, where a third of the electorate is undecided whom to vote for.
Latvia: Arguing the Failed State Case
Juris Kaža of Failed State Latvia? argues why he thinks that Latvia is a failed state lite, and provides historical and socioeconomic reasons for his case.
Latvia: Referendum Sacks Parliament
Juris Kaža of Failed State Latvia? writes about the 23 July referendum in Latvia, resulting in the dissolution of parliament and new general elections on 17 September.
Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania: 70th anniversary of deportations
Otto's Random Thoughts commemorates the 70th anniversary of deportations from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania following the June 1940 Soviet occupation of the countries, whereas Itching for Eestimaa reflects upon the political and social legacy of the deportations for Estonia.
Latvia: National news agency website hacked
Juris Kaža of Telecoms in Latvia draws attention to a recent hacker attach on the Latvian news agency LETA, closing down the website for several hours.
Latvia: Shortcomings of an Internet census
Juris Kaža of Telecoms in Latvia points to some major shortcomings in integrity for the Latvian national census, to be conducted by way of the Internet.
Latvia: The Kristovskis Scandal
All About Latvia covers the xenophobia scandal that involves Latvia's new foreign minister Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis – here, here, and here.
U.S.: Security in the Baltic Region
Belatedly, a link to the discussion of Barack Obama's contribution to security in the Baltic region – at Itching for Eestimaa.
Latvia: More on the Election Results
A note on the results of the Oct. 2 elections in Latvia – at Baltic.
Europe: EU and LGBT Rights
Katerina Todorovska wrote [MKD] on the Macedonia in the European Union blog about EU's imperfect record on LGBT rights and its positive influence in relation to starting the debate and improving tolerance in the Western Balkans, as Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia strive to join this supranational structure.
