In a press release, the SIF pointed out that the objective of the program, which provided funding for the documentary series "Split", was to support the production of content in Latvian, but that the activities of the "Re:Baltica" project were partly carried out in a foreign language [Russian]. The application did not include information on the production of content in a foreign language.
As the SIF claimed, in the first episode "Politicians from Russian parties", the share of the Russian language exceeded 70% of the total word count.
Re:Baltica explained that an editorial decision was made to keep the original language and use subtitles so as not to lose the opportunity to fully see the attitudes of the individuals.
However, the SIF decided to claw back part of the €36,590 of the total €92,915 funding approved, pointing out that the project was still partially achieving what it had promised.
Re:Baltica promises to appeal the SIF decision and, if the decision is not reversed, to take legal action.
The SIF had previously asked Re:Baltica to pay back €127.5 for the Russian-language print on its media tent in the documentary series.
The Foundation had also launched an investigation to assess whether an episode of the story complied with the project's regulations and whether it violated competition rules. The evaluation was launched following a submission to the Parliamentary Requests Commission by the Latvia First party, notoriously skeptical of investigative journalism. The SIF asked for the opinion of media policy experts who had previously been involved in the work of the evaluation committee. According to the experts, the 4th episode of "The Split" did not violate any rules contested.
