Incumbent LRT director general re-elected for second term

The LRT Council on Tuesday re-elected Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė as the director general of the Lithuanian public broadcaster.

In the third vote this year, she received seven votes from the 12-strong LRT Council, the minimum she needed to be re-elected for the second term.

In the previous two attempts, the top two contenders, including Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė and Aistis Zabarauskas, a communications specialist, each received an equal number of votes.

This time, however, Zabarauskas decided not to apply.

Those vying for the post were Garbačiauskaite-Budrienė, Mantas Martišius, an associate professor at Vilnius University, and Aldaras Stonys, an analyst with over eight years of previous experience at the public broadcaster.

Martišius received five votes, with no LRT Council members voting for Stonys.

“These six months have not been easy for me or for LRT as a whole. The uncertainty was not to our advantage, but we still continued to work,” Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė said after the vote.

According to her, LRT will continue to expand its audience, attract children and young people, increase its outreach to the regions, and strengthen its news website.

The LRT Council, the public broadcaster’s highest collegial governing body, comprises 12 members prominent in social, scientific, and cultural fields, who are appointed for six-year terms.

Four members are appointed at different times by the president and the parliament each, and one member by the Research Council of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Education Council, the Lithuanian Artistic Union’ Association, and the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference each.