Lithuania’s parliamentary Committee on Culture on Wednesday approved proposed amendments to the LRT law. This comes amid objections from the opposition and international organisations, as well as widespread protests.
Social Democrat Vytautas Grubliauskas argued that a compromise had been reached.
“I highly appreciate the fact that even the opposition acknowledges that many concerns were taken into account, that a great deal of work has been done and that, in many cases, a compromise was indeed found. Of course, not 100%, not in every instance,” he said.
Following the committee’s approval of its conclusions, the draft amendments will now return to the parliamentary chamber for further consideration. This is expected to happen next week.
Proposed changes
The committee drafted a new definition of the public broadcaster’s mission, and approved a new governing body – the management board. Moreover, he number of members of the supervisory LRT Council will increase from 12 to 15.
However, the committee rejected a proposal allowing the Tripartite Council – made up of the government, business and trade union reps – to delegate one member to the council, instead proposing to include the National Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations.
The term of council members will be shortened from six years to four years; stricter requirements will also apply for the new members. The exact criteria will have to be approved by the delegating institutions.
At present, the majority of the council members are delegated by politicians. Despite calls by the LRT staff and protesters to depoliticise the council, the 15-member council will retain the same number of members delegated by politicians – four by the parliament (two each from the parties in power and the opposition), as well as four by the president.
The committee also approved the creation of an LRT Council office to assist the delegates. The decision has been criticised by the LRT administration for diverting resources amid the current budget freeze.
The committee unanimously rejected the proposal to restrict the participation of representatives of other media organisations in the creation of LRT content. This was criticised by the media and anti-corruption watchdogs for showing signs of bias and potential censorship.
Meanwhile, editorial policy guidelines would be approved by the heads of radio and television news departments and the editor-in-chief of the LRT.lt news website. The contentious proposal for the LRT Council to approve editorial guidelines was rejected.
The committee also backed away from a highly-criticised proposal under which LRT would sign 5-year contracts with the government that would set out funding conditions.
The committee also decided that the changes would come into force immediately, which was criticised by the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. The commission has said that changes affecting the dismissal procedure for the director general of LRT should only apply to future directors.
Dismissing the LRT director general before the end of their term would still require a two-thirds majority vote in the Council, the same threshold as currently applies.
However, the changes propose expanding the scope for which a director could be fired, as well as allowing the supervisory council to hold the vote in a secret ballot.
The latter provision was criticised by Lithuania’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Special Investigation Service (STT).
“Such highly significant matters must be public; the reasoning and the vote itself should be open to society,” Goda Kuznecovaitė, head of the STT’s anti-corruption assessment division, told the committee meeting on Wednesday.
“If the council is left to decide at its own discretion whether to make it secret or not [...], we would consider that our comments have effectively not been taken into account,” Kuznecovaitė added.
According to her, in the interests of transparent lawmaking, any changes to the dismissal procedure for the director general should apply only to future office-holders.
In an earlier anti-corruption assessment, the STT stressed that some provisions of the draft create preconditions for biased decisions, as well as risk of abuse arising from legal ambiguity.
Consideration of the LRT law amendments has prompted protests from journalists and members of the public. According to media reports, around 30,000 people attended a demonstration last month.
‘There are no perfect laws’
“We fundamentally oppose this push forward and the refusal to listen to arguments,” said Vytautas Juozapaitis, deputy chairman of the Committee on Culture and a Conservative MP, before the vote.
He announced that three opposition representatives would shortly submit a separate opinion.
Democrats “For Lithuania” MP Rima Baškienė stressed that the working group led by Social Democrat Juozas Olekas, deputy speaker of parliament, had produced a poor-quality draft, forcing the committee to make substantial corrections.
“But I cannot vote in favour because I still see too many flaws remaining,” the MP said.
Committee chairman Kęstutis Vilkauskas, also a Social Democrat, said consideration of the LRT amendments had been challenging and thanked everyone involved in revising the draft.
“There are no perfect laws,” he said.
LRT director general Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė on Wednesday urged committee members not to rush the approval process and instead hold an additional meeting to clarify the functions of the LRT Council, the newly proposed management board and the administration.
According to her, the Venice Commission also stressed the importance of clearly defining the division of powers between these bodies.
“At the moment, you are approving or rejecting individual amendments, but there is no overall picture,” Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė said.
The Committee on Culture required 11 meetings to prepare and approve its conclusions on the LRT law amendments.
The conclusions themselves amount to more than 1,400 pages in electronic format.
In total, more than 150 proposals were registered from MPs, around 15 organisations, citizens and state institutions, as well as more than 40 comments from parliament’s Legal Department.
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