M. Jan Chakste, the President of the Latvian Republic, has started libel actions against four anti-Semitic newspapers
which have been attacking him for having ordered a portrait of himself painted by a Jewish artist, Jan Motzkin.
On the same day, obviously by arrangement, all the anti-Semitic newspapers in Latvia published an article under the heading “President has portrait painted by Jew”. The President was strongly censured for having gone to a Jewish artist for his portrait. Some of the statements made against the President in the article were highly libellous. The trial is due to open this week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
