Letter of support for media staff at LRT
Letter of support for media staff at LRT
From The Society of Journalists (Warsaw)
Dear colleagues, we are writing to you to express our support for your efforts to defend the independence of the National Radio and Television of Lithuania (LRT) so that you can fulfill your legal obligation to provide “objective, democratic and impartial” content as well as “diverse opinions and convictions”.
You are right to fight the moves in the Seimas undertaken by the Nemeno Ausra party and the governing coalition to make it easier to sack your current director general.
Already, Lithuania’s government majority in the Seimas has voted to freeze the level of funding for LRT at its present level for the next three years. This de facto funding cut would make LRT more vulnerable to political influence and endanger your independence.
These moves run counter to the spirit and the letter of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) which came into force on August 8 this year. EMFA seeks to guarantee the independence of public service media in the European Union and defend a key element of our democratic system throughout the European Union.
Impartial and trustworthy public service media such as LRT are essential if our countries are to maintain their resilience in the face of a growing threat from bad actors such as President Putin’s Russia. Public media which only broadcast the ruling party propaganda contribute to deepen political polarisation. Also, independent public media are an essential antidote to fake news and thus a crucial element of any country’s security infrastructure.
In Poland, the Law and Justice-led government in power between 2015 and 2023 captured our public media and used them to broadcast propaganda and destroyed their credibility.
This must not happen to LRT.
Your fight is our fight! We must stand together for the cause of a free media serving the well-being and the safety of our societies in the face of the internal and external threats to our democracies!
Krzysztof Bobinski
for the board of the Society of Journalists (Warsaw)
Warsaw, 03.12.2025
