RIGA — Telecommunications companies LNT and Lattelecom have threatened legal action against the Diena newspaper due to what they call misinformation about them in a July 5 article about the “Digitālgeita” scandal.

Andrejs Ēķis, the owner of LNT has his assets seized in March as part of an ongoing investigation into the mishandling of the digitalization of the state-owned Lattelecom, which began in 2003. Authorities suspect Ēķis, People’s Party leader and former Prime Minister Andris Šķēle and others of [private_supervisor]running the secretive Kempmayer Media Ltd, an off-shore company that won a €38 million contract to implement the digitalization and is alleged to have mishandled the funds. Ēķis has denied any involvement with Kempmayer, while Šķēle called the accusations “fantasy.”

LNT is claiming that there has been defamation against their management and is seeking retractions from the newspaper for a July 5 article which the the paper reported that the State Audit Office found that LTV is using digital broadcast equipment originally purchased by Kempmayer Media. The paper used an anonymous source, as the State Audit Office is not commenting on the ongoing investigation.

“LNT, examining the newspaper, again confirmed that the newspaper Diena is a party newspaper and all material on the story are felt to be biased information that presents one-party interests, ignoring the journalistic objectivity toward principles of true facts,” LNT said in a statement.

Lattelecom said that it had been slandered and accused of administering a tender by unfair means.

“Allegations about the project being more expensive or broker-feeding is speculative, biased and inaccurate. Lattelecom, like any commercial company operating in the market, issues competitive tenders in order to work successfully and be profitable,” the company said in a statement.

The company declared that a written statement is being prepared by the company to ask for a retraction and that it will sue if not complied with.

Diena has rubbished the claims with its editor demanding details about the alleged defamation.

“I want to see concretely, which sentence, which word article is wrong and then talk further,” Diena’s head editor Gunta Bojāra wrote in a statement. [/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]running the secretive Kempmayer Media Ltd, an off-shore company that won a €38 million contract to implement the digitalization and is alleged to have mishandled the funds. Ēķis has denied any involvement with Kempmayer, while Šķēle called the accusations “fantasy.”

LNT is claiming that there has been defamation against their management and is seeking retractions from the newspaper for a July 5 article which the the paper reported that the State Audit Office found that LTV is using digital broadcast equipment originally purchased by Kempmayer Media. The paper used an anonymous source, as the State Audit Office is not commenting on the ongoing investigation.

“LNT, examining the newspaper, again confirmed that the newspaper Diena is a party newspaper and all material on the story are felt to be biased information that presents one-party interests, ignoring the journalistic objectivity toward principles of true facts,” LNT said in a statement.

Lattelecom said that it had been slandered and accused of administering a tender by unfair means.

“Allegations about the project being more expensive or broker-feeding is speculative, biased and inaccurate. Lattelecom, like any commercial company operating in the market, issues competitive tenders in order to work successfully and be profitable,” the company said in a statement.

The company declared that a written statement is being prepared by the company to ask for a retraction and that it will sue if not complied with.

Diena has rubbished the claims with its editor demanding details about the alleged defamation.

“I want to see concretely, which sentence, which word article is wrong and then talk further,” Diena’s head editor Gunta Bojāra wrote in a statement. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]running the secretive Kempmayer Media Ltd, an off-shore company that won a €38 million contract to implement the digitalization and is alleged to have mishandled the funds. Ēķis has denied any involvement with Kempmayer, while Šķēle called the accusations “fantasy.”

LNT is claiming that there has been defamation against their management and is seeking retractions from the newspaper for a July 5 article which the the paper reported that the State Audit Office found that LTV is using digital broadcast equipment originally purchased by Kempmayer Media. The paper used an anonymous source, as the State Audit Office is not commenting on the ongoing investigation.

“LNT, examining the newspaper, again confirmed that the newspaper Diena is a party newspaper and all material on the story are felt to be biased information that presents one-party interests, ignoring the journalistic objectivity toward principles of true facts,” LNT said in a statement.

Lattelecom said that it had been slandered and accused of administering a tender by unfair means.

“Allegations about the project being more expensive or broker-feeding is speculative, biased and inaccurate. Lattelecom, like any commercial company operating in the market, issues competitive tenders in order to work successfully and be profitable,” the company said in a statement.

The company declared that a written statement is being prepared by the company to ask for a retraction and that it will sue if not complied with.

Diena has rubbished the claims with its editor demanding details about the alleged defamation.

“I want to see concretely, which sentence, which word article is wrong and then talk further,” Diena’s head editor Gunta Bojāra wrote in a statement. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]running the secretive Kempmayer Media Ltd, an off-shore company that won a €38 million contract to implement the digitalization and is alleged to have mishandled the funds. Ēķis has denied any involvement with Kempmayer, while Šķēle called the accusations “fantasy.”

LNT is claiming that there has been defamation against their management and is seeking retractions from the newspaper for a July 5 article which the the paper reported that the State Audit Office found that LTV is using digital broadcast equipment originally purchased by Kempmayer Media. The paper used an anonymous source, as the State Audit Office is not commenting on the ongoing investigation.

“LNT, examining the newspaper, again confirmed that the newspaper Diena is a party newspaper and all material on the story are felt to be biased information that presents one-party interests, ignoring the journalistic objectivity toward principles of true facts,” LNT said in a statement.

Lattelecom said that it had been slandered and accused of administering a tender by unfair means.

“Allegations about the project being more expensive or broker-feeding is speculative, biased and inaccurate. Lattelecom, like any commercial company operating in the market, issues competitive tenders in order to work successfully and be profitable,” the company said in a statement.

The company declared that a written statement is being prepared by the company to ask for a retraction and that it will sue if not complied with.

Diena has rubbished the claims with its editor demanding details about the alleged defamation.

“I want to see concretely, which sentence, which word article is wrong and then talk further,” Diena’s head editor Gunta Bojāra wrote in a statement. [/private_subscription 1 year]

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