Lithuanian ban on Russian TV: is it effective?

Posted by: raminta 9 years, 8 months ago

(1 comment)

Since the 13th of April and until the 13th of July one of Russian TV channels “RTR Planeta” is banned in Lithuania. Although this TV channel is registered in Sweden, it produces the content created by All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), which is owned by the state of Russia and operates more than a dozen TV channels and radio stations.

The decision to suspend rebroadcasting of "RTR Planeta" for three months was taken by the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTC), which stated that the programme “Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovjov” incited hatred, discord and warmongering, and spread disinformation.

The article 19 of the Lithuanian Law on the Provision of Information to the Public forbids to publish information which instigates war or hatred. The LRTC is in charge of the supervision of this law in television programmes and, according to the article 34-1, has the right to suspend the broadcast of TV programmes from other European states at certain conditions: a TV channel repeatedly within 12 months has to violate the law; a competent institution (Note: which is not specified) has to conclude the violation; the LRTC has to inform the broadcaster and the European Commission about the suspected violations and the indended measures; no agreement is reached by mutual consent through consultations with the broadcasting state and the European Commission within 15 days; and the alleged violations keep on continuing. This provision has been partly transfered form the Article 3 of the AVMS Directive which additionaly states that the European Commission has to evaluate the situation and to decide if it is compliant with the EU law within two months after the notification.

The story of this particular case began on March 2, 2014, when the “RTR Planeta” broadcasted a program “Weekly news”. The LRTC was alerted by the politicians about the content of this programme and has began an investigation asking the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics to give an opinion if the content of the programme was compliant with the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public. After this consultation the LRTC took a decision on April 2, 2014, stating that the programme deliberately published biased and tendentious information justifying violence against civilians, instigating military actions and hatred between Russians and Ukrainians, justifying military intervention of the sovereign state, and annexation of part of its territory, therefore it was decided to suspend the re-broadcast of parts of the programme “RTR Planeta” for 3 months. This decision was sancioned by the Vilnius Regional Court and, due to technical reasons, implemented by rebroadcasters in a way which completelly canceled the re-broadcast of the whole TV channel “RTR Planeta”. Ten months later, on January 18, 2014, the “RTR Planeta” broadcasted the programme “Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovjov”, which again raised many public discussions about the content and the LRTC took the initiative to investigate it. It is worth mentioning that for the evaluation of this programme the LRTC has consulted the Strategic Communications Department of the Lithuanian Military instead of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics, which at the end deciced not to reply to similar LRTC's requests. The new decision to suspend the re-broadcast of "RTR Planeta" for 3 months was taken by the LRTC on April 8, 2014 and for this time it did not require any sanctioning from the Court. It is interesting to note that the LRTC was really in a rush in taking this decision because "the year of repeatable violations" was coming to the end and the LRTC was close to loose a chance to take any measures.

Russia has welcomed this decision with anger and immediatelly stated that Lithuania is violating the freedom of expression and that the responses from Brussels and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media are awaiting. Quite a similar reaction was heard from international NGO's defending the freedom of expression: they wrote a letter to the Lithuanian President saying that they see the banning as a wrong message to Russia, which contradicts with the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international free speech standards.

Personally, I think that this situation raises many questions about the legal compliance of the procedure, proportionality and effectiveness of the ban.

As it was mentioned, the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public does not specify a body, which the LRTC has to consult. For the first time the LRTC has consulted the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics while for the second time - the Strategic Communications Department of the Lithuanian Military. None of these institutions are directly entitled to supply the LRTC with the opinions about propaganda content. I see this legal loophole as a big problem which allows the LRTC to vary between bodies and to consult not the competent ones. It already became a common practice that the decisions of the LRTC are mainly based on arguments highlighted in consultations, therefore it threatens the decisions to be unjustified and wrong.

The procedure stated in the Article 3 of the AVMS Directive, which asks the supervisory authority to consult the European Commission and the broadcaster and to find an agreement in 15 days, seems to be contradictory with the following part of this article stating that the European Commission has to evaluate the situation and to decide if it is complaint with the EU law within two months. In this case the LRTC was not even waiting for the decision form the European Commission because the deadline for the application of the chosen measure was burning. Nevertheless, until now no answer from the European Commission is heard and if it decides that the LRTC applied a wrong measure, Lithuania will be put in a very uncomfortable possition.

Moreover, neither the AVMS Directive, nor the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public indicate the duration of a TV channel's ban. The LRTC's choise of three months period was not explained in the decision. The CEO of the LRTC, Edmundas Vaitekūnas, did not explain it either, but highlighted that the LRTC can take measures which could ban a TV channel for six months or even for one year. It is very important that this loophole would be filled as it should limit any possibilities for the abuse of the law and unreasonable violation of the freedom of expression.

The European Court of Justice often highlights that the measures taken by a Member State must be proportional. The LRTC is obliged to apply this principle in practice according to the national law as well. Nevertheless, the decision to ban the “RTR Planeta” was taken after a deep evaluation of two programmes (e. g. “Weekly news” and “Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovjov”), even though this channel broadcasts many other TV shows, movies and other programmes. Therefore, the restriction to access other TV programmes, which were not evaluated by the LRTC and do not infringe the law, does not seem to be proportional, limits the right of the audience to access information and violates the freedom of expression.

While talking about the effectiveness of the ban it should be noted that the “RTR Planeta” is mainly watched by national minorities (e. g. Russians, Byelorussians and Poles) living in Lithuania and by older generation of Lithuanians. Last year the LRTC launched a public survey which showed that Russian TV channels are daily watched by 13% of Lithuanians and by 61% of non-Lithuanians. Only 30% of non-Lithuanians watch Lithuanian TV channels and the same part of them is convinced that Russian media is objective. Such numbers show the fact that Russian TV is popular among non-Lithuanians and it also highlights that Lithuania lacks TV programmes which would be available in national minorities' mother tongues. Sometimes talks about the neccessity to create a Lithuanian TV channel in other languages are heard from politicians but until now no one began implementing them. Unlike Estonia, which is planning to begin the broadcast of the channel "ETV+" available in Russian since the autumn of this year.

To my mind, even if the Russian government has intentions to spread propaganda on TV channels broadcasted in the Baltic states, the ban on the “RTR Planeta” will force it to direct the flow of propaganda to other TV channels making it more difficult to track. Currently there is another investigation on Russian TV channel “MR” and most probably the LRTC will follow the same direction. Having in mind this and the fact that the “RTR Planeta” has already been suspended once, seems that the LRTC's decisions are not effective and that Russia has no intentions to change the content line. At the end, such Russian media behavior is quite understandable as it is finansed by the state and is not so sensitive to advertising loss. Therefore, I would rather suggest to the LRTC to choose other measures, such as the improvement of media literacy which is somehow completely forgotten in Lithuania, spreading more information about how to identify propaganda and creating more programmes for national minorities in their mother tongues. I am quite disappointed that the LRTC is trying to tackle propaganda since 2013, but still did not put any efforts into the education of the audience. Fortunately, one of the telecommunications company, TEO, has decided to fill this gap and offers to the society free lectures and meetings about the diversity of opinions and propaganda. In the meantime, Lithuanian authorities are working on the amendments to the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public imposing strict punishments to broadcasters and re-broadcasters which spread propaganda and other information threatening to the safety and sovereignty of the state.

I conclude this article with my personal belief that the authoritative regime cannot be stopped with authoritative measures and I am convinced that Lithuania should find a more delicate way out of this situation instead of posing restrictions to the freedom of expression.

Image courtesy of Paul Townsend, Flickr.com

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