2 PETROPAVLOVSKIS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT THE FACTS I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 6. The applicant was born in 1955 and lives in Riga. 7. Before 29 October 1998, when the Latvian Parliament (Saeima) enacted the Education Law, education in State and municipal schools continued to be conducted in Latvian and Russian, a practice which was inherited from Soviet times. The Education Law, which took effect on 1 June 1999, provided that the only language of instruction in all State and municipal schools in the Republic of Latvia would be the State language, that is, Latvian. It also provided that the language of instruction might be different in private schools, in State and municipal schools implementing national minority curricula and in other educational establishments as provided by law. As regards the State and municipal schools implementing national minority curricula, it was for the Ministry of Education to set out specific subjects to be taught in the State language (section 9(1) and (2)) and the Minister for Education was to ensure that the relevant regulations were submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers (Ministru kabinets) by 1 September 1999 (transitional provisions, paragraph 3). It was also established that everyone should learn the State language and take the State language proficiency test in order to obtain primary and secondary education (section 9(3)). 8. Between 2003 and 2004 the applicant was actively involved in protests against the education reform. He was one of the main leaders of a movement named “Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools” (“Krievu skolu aizstāvības štābs” in Latvian), which was involved in promoting and advocating protests against the education reform. He participated in meetings and demonstrations against the education reform and made public statements advocating ideas concerning the Russianspeaking community’s rights to education in Russian and the preservation of the State-financed schools with Russian as the sole language of instruction. The Government provided the Court with evidence of media coverage of these protests in the period from 28 June 2003 to 23 September 2005, including news reports by the Latvian news agency LETA and articles in the daily newspapers Diena and Lauku Avīze, and in the regional newspaper Novaja Gazeta (in Russian). There were thirteen news reports and articles in total. 9. After several sizable meetings and demonstrations, Parliament adopted amendments to the Education Law on 5 February 2004. The new text provided that from 1 September 2004 all secondary State and municipal schools implementing national minority curricula had to ensure instruction in the State language in not less than 60% of the curriculum, including foreign languages, in respect of pupils commencing their studies in the tenth