Šiaulių court upholds protection of LRT journalist’s source

The Šiauliai Regional Court has upheld LRT’s complaint against an order requiring the public broadcaster to provide information about an LRT.lt article and disclose its sources, LRT reported. The court found that prosecutors had breached provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Law enforcement officials had been investigating how journalists learned about possible sexual harassment involving a 14-year-old at the Gruzdžiai Socialisation Centre.

The third division of the Šiauliai City and District Police Commissariat had asked LRT to identify who had initiated the article, titled “14-year-old’s complaint about harassment prompted staff comments: preparing too sexually,” and to disclose where the information cited in the article had come from.

LRT refused to reveal the source. The Šiauliai District Court later approved a prosecutor’s request for information related to the preparation of the article, including data that could identify the journalist’s source.

LRT appealed that requirement to the Šiauliai Regional Court, arguing that protecting journalistic sources is a fundamental principle of free and independent media. It said sources should be disclosed only in exceptional cases and where there was a clear and sufficient legal basis.

In a ruling issued on August 25, the Šiauliai Regional Court stressed the importance of source protection, describing it as essential to maintaining public trust in the media and as an indicator of the level of freedom of information in a country.

The court said the prosecutor had required LRT to reveal where and when information about the minor mentioned in the article had been obtained. However, it found that the prosecutor had relied on Article 155, paragraph 1, of the Code of Criminal Procedure instead of Article 80, paragraph 1, which specifically sets out the procedure for ordering a person to disclose an information source.

Because the investigative action had been carried out in breach of criminal procedure law, the court granted LRT’s complaint. The ruling by Judge Martynas Galvičius is final.

On August 21, after the case became public, prosecutors withdrew their demand that LRT disclose the source who had provided information about the possible sexual harassment at the Gruzdžiai Socialisation Centre.