Lithuanian bishops accused of bypassing transparency rules in public broadcaster council appointments

The Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference has drawn criticism from lawmakers after failing to publicly disclose all candidates for its delegate to the governing council of Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT, as required by law, LRT reports.

Under amendments to the LRT Law that took effect in September 2024, all institutions appointing members to the broadcaster’s 12-seat council must publish candidate lists in advance on their websites. The rule applies to the president, parliament, the Lithuanian Council of Science, the Lithuanian Creators’ Association, the Lithuanian Council of Education—and the Bishops’ Conference, which appoints one member each.

The conference selected legal scholar and former Constitutional Court judge Ramutė Ruškytė as its delegate but did not publicly name the two other candidates considered. In a statement to BNS, the conference argued its internal selection followed canon law, which “does not provide for disclosing candidates who are not chosen.”

Members of the Seimas Culture Committee rejected that justification. “It was hard to expect any other explanation from the Bishops’ Conference. The reference to canon law truly resembles an evasion,” conservative committee vice-chair Vytautas Juozapaitis told BNS. Social Democrat committee chair Kęstutis Vilkauskas stressed that “the law applies equally to everyone,” adding that religious norms cannot override secular legislation.

Other appointing bodies have complied with the transparency requirement. The Council of Science published nine candidates for its delegate, while the Creators’ Association nominated Daiva Daugirdienė, chair of the Lithuanian Literary Translators’ Union. The Council of Education plans to disclose its candidates next week, and the presidential office will soon outline its selection procedure.

LRT’s council oversees the broadcaster’s strategic direction and compliance with public media standards. Members serve six-year terms, with the current appointments set for May.