Commission rejects university article about mayoral candidate as political ad

Lithuania’s Central Electoral Commission (VRK) has decided that an article initiated by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, also known as Vilnius Tech, about alumnus and future Liberal Movement candidate for Klaipėda mayor Artūras Trušas was not political advertising, LRT reported.

The VRK launched an investigation in June after receiving a report about the article, titled “Seafaring taught leadership and inspired the creation of an international business,” published by the Delfi news portal. It described Trušas’s studies and career.

During the investigation, the commission contacted Delfi’s editorial office, Vilnius Tech, the university’s Lithuanian Maritime Academy and Trušas to establish how the article had been produced and assess whether it could constitute political advertising.

Delfi said the article had been initiated by Vilnius Tech and prepared under a verbal publicity agreement. The university said its purpose was to promote studies and that it formed part of a public relations project running for several years, presenting successful career stories of university alumni.

Trušas supported the university’s explanation, telling investigators that Vilnius Tech had approached him as an alumnus to promote the seafarer profession and encourage young people to consider studying at the Lithuanian Maritime Academy.

After assessing the collected information, the VRK said there was insufficient evidence to classify the article as political advertising. “It contains no elements of political campaigning, and it was also not established that the politician influenced the initiation of the order,” the commission said in a statement issued Thursday.

However, the VRK recommended that the university pay greater attention in future to ensuring that publications about political figures comply with the Political Advertising Regulation when planning and publicising them.