European Court of Human Rights rejects Lithuanian journalists’ complaint over deleted government meeting recording

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dismissed a complaint by Lithuanian journalists Rita Miliūtė and Vilma Danauskienė regarding the non-disclosure and subsequent deletion of a government meeting recording from around six years ago, LRT reports.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Justice, the ECHR ruled the complaint unfounded. The journalists had argued that officials responsible for withholding public information were not held administratively accountable nor ordered to pay compensation.

The dispute began in 2018 when the government, then led by Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, refused to provide the audio recording of a cabinet meeting to the journalists. Authorities later confirmed the recording had been destroyed. The government chancellor’s office stated that cabinet meeting recordings were not subject to public disclosure, offering instead access to the publicly available meeting minutes.

A Lithuanian administrative court later ruled that the journalists’ right to access, collect, and disseminate information had been violated. However, courts found no administrative offenses in the actions of the officials involved. A subsequent constitutional complaint by the journalists was also rejected by Lithuania’s Constitutional Court.

The ECHR assessed whether Lithuanian law provided sufficient legal remedies for the refusal to disclose information by government institutions and whether, under the European Convention on Human Rights, this should include the legal liability of specific officials. The court noted that at the time, Lithuanian law did not require the preservation of government meeting recordings, and the recording in question had been automatically deleted in line with then-current practices.

The ECHR also highlighted that Lithuanian courts determined the decision to withhold the recording was collective, not the responsibility of a single official. Shortly after these events, Lithuanian laws were amended to require the recording and public broadcasting of government meetings, indicating that the issue was also linked to the legal framework at the time.

In its conclusion, the ECHR emphasized that while the right of journalists to gather information is a fundamental part of press freedom, in this case, national institutions had provided an effective legal remedy by acknowledging the violation and examining the complaint on its merits.

The government meeting in question involved discussions on legislative amendments regarding journalists’ access to registry data without charge.