The Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) has stripped Russian independent TV Rain (TV Dozhd) of its license, Ivars Abolins, NEPLP chairman, told Latvia's public broadcaster LSM.

The right to broadcast of TV Rain has been revoked in the context of national security and public order and the network is set to disappear on Thursday, December 8.

The NEPLP fined TV Rain €10.000 for displaying a map in which occupied Crimea was marked as Russian territory and for calling the Russian army "our army" in a piece that mentioned how viewers could help provide recruits to the illegal invasion force with supplies and equipment, the Twitter account of the watchdog reported on December 2.

The media supervisor noted that this was the second major violation of "TV Rain" in recent months. The NEPLP is entitled to cancel the channel's broadcast license completely if a third major infringement takes place, warned Abolins.

The NEPLP "was convinced that the management of TV Rain did not understand the nature and gravity of each individual infringement, nor of any set of infringements."

TV Rain moved its broadcasting premises to Latvia after Russia launched the war in Ukraine.