Lithuanian public broadcaster faces political pressure as ruling party accused of media takeover bid

The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) is attempting to undermine the independence of public broadcaster LRT by pushing legislative changes that critics say aim to seize control of its leadership, former LRT director Kęstutis Petrauskis warned in a public forum on Monday.

Speaking on LRT’s Forum programme, Petrauskis—who led the broadcaster from 2000 to 2005—accused the LSDP of using “classic methods” to “drag everything into a quagmire of discussions” with the ultimate goal of dismissing LRT’s current leadership and installing loyalists to portray the government in a more favourable light. “The aim is the same: to remove the director and occupy television and radio so that it shows the government in a better light than it really is,” he said.

The allegations come as Lithuania’s parliament debates controversial amendments to LRT’s governing law. On Monday, the Seimas Culture Committee spent an entire day reviewing over 100 proposed changes to the legislation, which has already drawn criticism from the president’s office and lacks input from the Venice Commission, Europe’s constitutional watchdog. Legal experts attached dozens of remarks to the draft law, which ruling-party lawmakers have advanced without awaiting international assessment.

Lithuania’s press freedom ranking has declined in recent years, dropping from 7th to 14th place in Reporters Without Borders’ global index—a trend former LRT leaders linked to political interference. Liudvikas Gadeikis, a former chair of LRT’s council, recalled past attempts by the agrarian-led government of Ramūnas Karbauskis to overhaul the broadcaster in 2017, which were thwarted only after commercial media and opposition parties rallied to pass a compromise law that remains in force today.

Algirdas Kaušpėdas, who headed Lithuanian Television in 1990–1991, pointed to Hungary’s authoritarian shift under Viktor Orbán—where media freedom was systematically dismantled—as a cautionary example. “The huge victory in Hungary gives hope that we will not choose that path,” he said, warning that populist calls to trade liberty for stability often lead to stagnation.

The current dispute has exposed a breakdown in dialogue between LRT’s council and its staff, according to Petrauskis, who argued the existing legal framework requires no changes. Dainius Radzevičius, a former ethics ombudsman and council chair, criticised the abandonment of diplomatic cooperation in favour of “combat technologies,” noting that a sustainable funding model for LRT was achieved through consensus a decade ago.

LRT, Lithuania’s public-service broadcaster, operates under a governance structure that historically included a 17-member board of prominent cultural figures. Critics now say the current council lacks clear representation of the broadcaster’s interests, deepening the institutional crisis.