Šimonytė says she had no duty to protect Ramanauskas

Former prime minister and MP Ingrida Šimonytė told a Vilnius court she never felt obliged to protect broadcaster Algis Ramanauskas, LRT reported. She testified in a criminal case in which comedian Artūras Orlauskas is accused of defaming Ramanauskas.

According to the case, Orlauskas said Ramanauskas may have been removed from the TV show Dviračio žinios because of alleged alcohol abuse, and that Šimonytė had failed to protect him. Šimonytė said she remembered being called to the police to answer questions about the matter and was surprised by the summons. She suggested Orlauskas’s words may have been taken out of context and given undue importance.

“I never felt obliged to specifically protect Algis Ramanauskas more than any other citizen,” Šimonytė told the court. She said Ramanauskas might have made an informal, joking or ironic remark that she had not protected him.

LRT Director General Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė also testified. She said the public broadcaster had no direct employment relationship with Ramanauskas, but worked with a production company that made TV programmes featuring him.

Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė said some of Ramanauskas’s remarks were unacceptable to LRT, prompting it to send the production company a letter citing the broadcaster’s code of ethics. She said the concerns related to several comments about politicians, including then-prime minister Gintautas Paluckas and Social Democrat Vilija Blinkevičiūtė.

She told the court she had never received complaints about Ramanauskas’s work or information that he might abuse alcohol. LRT has a zero-per-mille policy, she said, and drinking alcohol during work is prohibited.

Language specialist Miglė Keturkienė, who assessed Orlauskas’s statements, said they expressed an opinion rather than presented facts. She said she had seen a gesture Orlauskas made, snapping his fingers against his neck, but had not assessed it separately. The gesture could be understood as referring to alcohol use, she said, though some young people might not interpret it that way.

Orlauskas denies guilt. The next hearing is scheduled for November 26.