In Latvia, the songs of the legendary Maestro were banned

The Latvian Seimas has decided to ban radio stations from playing songs whose authors are persons under sanctions. This is reported by the Delfi portal.

The majority of the Parliament supported the proposal of Deputy Arturs Butans (National Assembly) to include in the law provisions prohibiting the inclusion in the programs and broadcasts of electronic media of works written by sanctioned persons.

During the discussion of the amendment to the law on electronic media, a discussion broke out about the songs of the Soviet and Latvian composer Raymond Pauls.

"Answer the question: if the author of the text is under sanctions, and the author of the music is Pauls, how? The National Union excludes eight Maestro's songs from the repertoire and applies the law in the current situation," opposition MP Edmunds Zivtins was outraged.

Deputy Cheslavs Batnya explained that if the author of the text is under sanctions, then it will be impossible to perform Paul's music.

"If the author is under sanctions, and this is Pauls' music, then yes, it will be impossible to perform it," he confirmed, but added that no one forbids listening to these songs at home on YouTube.

The measure will concern those authors who are under national sanctions, as well as on the sanctions lists of the European Union. For the amendment to enter into force, the Seimas must adopt the bill in the third reading.

As EADaily reported, at the end of June, Pauls's granddaughter Annamaria Paula spoke out about the law that removes the Russian language from public communication.

She believes that Latvia is "moving away from freedom" in the language issue. According to Paula, the language itself does not pose a threat. It is a means by which people think, create, love, grieve and communicate. And a strong country should not be afraid of languages.