Photo: TV Rain

A regional appeals court in Latvia has overturned the decision of the country’s national TV regulator to strip independent Russian TV news channel Dozhd of its broadcast licence, two and a half years after it was first revoked, Latvian news agency LETA reported on Wednesday.

Founded in 2010, Dozhd operated in Russia as an independent broadcaster until it was forced into exile following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, receiving a broadcasting licence in Latvia in June of the same year.

However, in December 2022, the National Council for Electronic Mass Media (NEPLP) rescinded Dozhd’s licence for a series of regulatory violations that constituted a “national security and public order threat”, including the absence of a Latvian audio track, the depiction of Crimea as Russian territory on a map, and referring to the Russian army as “our army”, LETA wrote.

One month later, Dozhd received a new broadcasting licence from the Netherlands, where its operations have since been based.

According to LETA, the appeal was likely granted as the NEPLP’s decision to revoke Dozhd’s broadcasting licence was primarily based on statements of a single employee, Alexey Korostelyov, which have since been “refuted and removed”. Additionally, Korostelyov has since left the TV station.

On Wednesday, Ivars Āboliņš, chairman of the NEPLP, responded to the decision on X, announcing his intention to appeal the court’s decision while maintaining that the verdict did not mean Dozhd would return to Latvia.

“We will appeal and I am sure that his verdict will never come into legal force and will be overturned,” Āboliņš said.

Dozhd editor-in-chief Tikhon Dzyadko has welcomed the decision on his Telegram channel, noting that “after two and a half years, justice has been restored” and expressing hope that Dozhd could resume broadcasting in Latvia and other Baltic states.