On Thursday, Lithuanian lawmakers decided to extend the existing ban on Russian and Belarusian TV broadcasting.
The Seimas adopted amendments to the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public, extending the existing ban on the retransmission or online distribution of Russian and Belarusian radio and television programs in Lithuania after 99 MPs voted in favour and three abstained.
According to the government, which had proposed extending the ban, Russia’s ongoing military aggression in Ukraine has been accompanied by a sustained campaign of disinformation throughout the European Union.
Under the proposal, the ban would apply for as long as Russia and Belarus are named in the National Security Strategy as posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security.
The law also provides for an exception that such programs may be retransmitted or distributed when it is done from EU member states or countries that have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, or when the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission grants permission to do so.
A Kantar survey of 1,123 people for the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission showed in May that the majority of the population in Lithuania did not miss Russian television programs. Meanwhile, 14 percent admitted to having recently watched TV channels broadcast in Russia.
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