•  House administrator accused of ethnic discrimination

Newspapers reported about controversy in Jurmala (seaside town near Riga). An administrator of a 50-apartments-house has placed inside the house yard a self-made placard with inscription in Russian “Only a pig has the great right, to dump garbage anywhere.” The inscription was not translated into Latvian. Eight months earlier, another sign was placed inside the same yard, depicting pig’s head and inscription “Grunt-grunt”, also in Russian only. Except for these incidents, all other information and documents issued by the house administrator were only in Latvian language. A resident of the house has filed court application and complained to the Ombudsman’s Office and to the State Language Centre, alleging that the placard is discriminating on the ground of ethnic origin. The house administrator removed the placard after communication with the State Language Centre. Chas