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On Thursday, 16 May, the Saeima considered in the second reading the Draft Law on the Amendments to the Law on Safety during Public Entertainment and Festive Events and supported the proposal to ban the use of USSR and Nazi symbols, including stylised ones, also during public entertainment and festive events. Currently the ban applies only to participants of rallies, marches and pickets.

The amendments will also prohibit participants of public entertainment and festive events to contest Latvia’s independence and territorial integrity, to suggest violent overthrow of the existing order, to call for disobedience of laws, to spread war propaganda, to glorify or abet crime and to incite committing other offences that threaten the security and health of participants of the event and of other people.

“The aim of this provision is to prevent the use of public entertainment and festive events for promoting ideologies of the two criminal totalitarian regimes. This particular proposal for amendment was drafted in the working group formed by the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee. The group included representatives from the Ministry of the Interior, the State Police and the Security Police, who took part in thorough discussions and agreed on the proposal,” during the plenary sitting pointed out Ināra Mūrniece, Chairperson of the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee, which is responsible for processing the Draft Law.

Mūrniece stressed that the Committee evaluated the proportionality of the provision. The Committee Chairperson also emphasised that it will be possible to impose administrative charges against the offender upon identification of the circumstances of the situation conducted by the State Police.

Within the scope of the Law, a public event is a publicly accessible festive, commemorative, entertainment, sports or leisure event planned and organised by a natural person or legal entity in a public place regardless of its ownership.

The deadline for submitting proposals for amendments for the third reading is 30 May.




Saeima Press Service