Lithuanian parliament committee delays LRT law amendments pending Venice Commission review

The Lithuanian parliament’s Culture Committee has decided to postpone further debate on proposed amendments to the law governing public broadcaster Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT) until the Venice Commission issues its findings, BNS reports.

Committee chairman Kęstutis Vilkauskas announced on Wednesday that the commission’s opinion on the draft law had already been prepared and would soon be translated into Lithuanian for review. “We should all familiarise ourselves very carefully with the Venice Commission’s conclusions,” he stated.

The committee opted to delay decisions on implementation timelines for the new provisions until its next meeting, focusing Wednesday’s session solely on proposals from citizens, organisations, and state institutions.

Social Democrat committee member Rima Baškienė noted that the body had already spent a record 30 hours deliberating the amendments, with four more hours scheduled for Wednesday. “The project submitted to the committee was poorly prepared,” she said, emphasising the need for a high-quality final draft.

Debate on the LRT governance reforms began on April 13, with the committee allocating two to three sessions per week to review over 150 proposals from lawmakers, 15 organisations, and 40 legal observations from the Seimas Legal Department.

Earlier decisions include redefining LRT’s national mission, establishing a new governing board (increasing its members from 12 to 15), and shortening board terms from six to four years. The committee rejected a proposal to let the Tripartite Council appoint a board member, instead granting that right to the National Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations. It also mandated stricter reputation requirements for board candidates and the creation of an LRT board office.

Lawmakers unanimously preserved existing rules limiting other media outlets’ involvement in LRT content production, dismissing attempts to restrict it further. A suggestion to empower the LRT board to approve editorial guidelines—criticised by the Journalists’ Professional Association and LRT Director General Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė—was also rejected. The committee maintained the current procedure for dismissing the director general, leaving the voting method to the board’s discretion.

The Seimas had previously approved the LRT governance overhaul in principle, returning the draft for detailed committee review before a plenary vote.