Citing freedom of speech concerns, five members of the Latvian parliament have asked the prosecutor general to explain recently filed incitement charges against employees of the DDD newspaper, according to a June 22, 2005 report by the Baltic News Service. The accused face possible prison sentences and large fines for violating Latvia’s hate speech laws in a series of articles published by DDD which stands for "De-occupation, de-colonization, de-Bolshevization"—clearly negative references to the country’s large Russian majority. One of the signers of the petition told the Baltic News Service that he was worried that a “witch hunt” against “dissidents” had begun in Latvia reminiscent of the Soviet period.

The paper has published articles referring to Jews as “kikes” and containing numerous derogatory statements about Russians living in Latvia. Past attempts to sanction the paper and its publisher under the country’s hate crimes statutes Aivars Garda have failed.

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