FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN UNITED LATVIA POLITICAL PARTY: AMENDMENTS TO LAW ON RADIO AND TELEVISION DISCRIMINATE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

RIGA, November 6 (RIA Novosti's Yuri Guralnik) - The leftist political party For Human Rights in United Latvia whose representatives make part of Latvian parliament has applied to the country's president Vaira Vike-Freiberga with a request to reject the amendments to the law on radio and television, a source in the party told RIA Novosti.

The amendments provide for limitations on the use of foreign languages on the Latvian radio and television and in essence are designed to discriminate the Russian language. On Friday, Latvian parliament approved the amendments and they are now to be authorized by the President.

The norm restricting use of foreign languages on the national radio and television has already been in effect in Latvia for a number of years. The law required that 75 percent of all radio and TV programs should be broadcasted in Latvian. Last summer, the country's Constitutional Court revoked this provision as illegal.

Latvia has about 10 Russian-language radio stations and two TV channels whose target audience amounts to nearly 800,000 people, or a third of the country's population.