View source for LETA

{{Use British English|date=January 2022}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Short description|Latvian news agency}}
{{Other uses|Leta (disambiguation)}}
{{One source|date=November 2019}}
{{Expand Latvian|LETA|date=January 2022}}
'''LETA''' is the main [[Latvia]]n [[news agency]]. Its headquarters are in [[Riga]]. It is owned by Estonian entrepreneur [[Margus Linnamäe]] through his company [[Postimees Group]].

== History ==
It was founded as ''Latopress'' in 1919, soon after Latvia became independent; the name was changed to ''LTA'' the next year when the wire service was subordinated to the Latvian Telegraph Agency. The name ''LETA'' was only used occasionally during the interwar period.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080319005605/http://www.leta2000.com/leta90/]

In 1940, when Latvia was [[Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940|occupied]] by the [[Soviet Union]], it became a subordinate agency of the [[Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union|Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS)]], a status it would keep until Latvia regained independence in 1991. 

During the [[occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany]], LETA was subordinated to the German DNB news agency.

From 1971 it was known as ''Latinform''. On 31 May 1990, the Latvian government restored the name LETA and the news agency's independence from TASS. 

In 1997, LETA was put up for privatisation by the Latvian state.

On 27 April 2011, the LETA website was defaced by an unknown hacker who claimed to be protesting commercially biased news sources. It was down for a few hours as was the LETA side project "nozare.lv" and others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.db.lv/citas-zinas/hakeri-uzlauzusi-leta-majaslapu-238460|title = Hakeri «uzlauzuši» LETA mājaslapu}}</ref>

In 2015, Estonian entrepreneur [[Margus Linnamäe]]'s UP Invest acquired LETA, and placed it under media company Eesti Meedia (now known as [[Postimees Group]]). The acquisition plan was first announced in August 2015.<ref name="LSMNews 2016-JAN-05"/> Eesti Meedia already owned rival news agency [[Baltic News Service]] (BNS), but the Linnamäe-owned media company sold BNS operations in Latvia (subsequently renamed Latvian News Service) and media monitoring service Mediju Monitorings to a third-party Estonian company named AMP Investeeringud on 31 August 2015.<ref name="LSMNews 2016-JAN-05"/> UP Invest has set up a subsidiary named Latvia Newsworks, which has been the owner of 99.66% stake in LETA since October 2015.<ref name="LSMNews 2016-JAN-05"/> The [[Competition Council (Latvia)|Competition Council of Latvia]] made a decision on 23 December 2015 that the deal would not impact competition, and approved the acquisition on 5 January 2016.<ref name="LSMNews 2016-JAN-05"/> Later, it was discovered that most employees of the Latvian News Service and Mediju Monitorings were transferred to LETA, but was not disclosed to the Latvian authorities at the time of the acquisition.<ref name="LSMNews 2019-JAN-24"/> On 18 January 2019, the Competition Council imposed a €32,200 fine on [[MM Group]] (UP Invest's parent company).<ref name="LSMNews 2019-JAN-24"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="LSMNews 2016-JAN-05">{{cite news |title=Competition watchdog okays sale of LETA news agency to MM Grupp |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/competition-watchdog-okays-sale-of-leta-news-agency-to-mm-grupp.a162635/ |access-date=12 January 2022 |work=eng.lsm.lv |publisher=[[Public broadcasting of Latvia]] |date=5 January 2016 |language=en}}</ref>
<ref name="LSMNews 2019-JAN-24">{{cite news |title=Owner of LETA news agency fined over 2015 acquisition deal |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/economy/owner-of-leta-news-agency-fined-over-2015-acquisition-deal.a307153/ |access-date=12 January 2022 |work=eng.lsm.lv |publisher=[[Public broadcasting of Latvia]] |date=24 January 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website}}
* [http://leta90.leta.lv/vesture/ History of LETA] {{in lang|lv}}

{{News agencies}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:News agencies based in Latvia]]
[[Category:1919 establishments in Latvia]]

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