Baltics in the Spotlight

EE On Line

April 6, 2009

From WNET.ORG/Channel THIRTEEN in New York:</B

The week of April 6, Worldfocus, the nightly international news program shown nationally on public television (check local listings) will be featuring a four-part Signature Series that examines life in the Baltics, specifically the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Viewers can also watch the program online at www.Worldfocus.org anytime.

Worldfocus correspondent Daljit Dhaliwal travels across the region in a four-part “Signature Series.”

The Series includes a look at Latvia, “On the Brink.” Dhaliwal reports on how this tiny nation – – a little bigger than West Virginia – is dealing with the recession hitting their country. As unemployment started to rise, it meant almost everyone in the country knew someone without a job. Latvia’s official unemployment rate is nine and a half percent- the second highest in Europe. There’s a sense of disbelief that the boom times that came with independence could be at an end.

Worldfocus looks behind the headlines to find a people both proud and angry and determined to recover.

In another Signature Series piece, “Estonia: In the Fight,” Worldfocus examines Estonia’s military after Soviet occupation, with a report on the country’s soldiers headed to Afghanistan to fight alongside new allies. Estonia first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002. In 2003 they joined the “Coalition of the Willing” in Iraq. One hundred and fifty Estonian troops are now in Afghanistan. The report also delves into Estonians seeing a connection between their long history of occupation and other nations’ desire for freedom.

Worldfocus also will report on Lithuania and the country’s battles over language and its State language law.

And in the Signature Series report, “E-Stonia,” Worldfocus takes a look at the country’s national ID card which is full of encrypted digital information that lets it be used for everything from bus passes to tax returns.

Viewers can also watch one or all of the four-part Signature Series on the Worldfocus website at www. worldfocus.org.