The Human Rights Monitoring Institute was asked by the Lithuanian Journalists Guild to evaluate a cooperation agreement between the editorial office of Elektrėnai's town newspaper and the local police. The evaluation clearly shows that the above mentioned agreement creates favorable circumstances for limiting freedom of speech and hinders the reader's ability "to receive just, exact and impartial information."
On February 3, 2007, the "Chronicle of Elektrėnai' and Elektrėnai Town Police Office entered into a cooperative agreement whereby the newspaper editor is obliged to confirm information with the responsible police officer before delivering it to the people of the Elektrėnai municipality.
The Lithuanian Journalists Guild decided there was an uncertainty regarding this Agreement’s correspondence to national law and is a possible entrenchment of censorship, and thus asked HRMI to evaluate the legality of the Cooperation Agreement.
The evaluation report states that the requirement to share the contents of an article with the responsible police officer of the local police agency creates favorable conditions to provide the readers with biased and unfair information. In the event that opinions of the newspaper editorial desk and the responsible police officer differ, according to the Cooperation Agreement, the newspaper is required to either to abandon the publishing of the information in question or deliver it in the form according to the police officer.
In this case, the legitimate interests of the reader are restricted since everyone is entitled to "just, exact and impartial information" as established in the Law of Provision of Information to the Public.
The above mentioned Cooperation Agreement may become an unwanted precedent in the country and could stimulate the revival of censorship. Therefore, Human Rights Monitoring Institute has advised the Lithuanian Journalists Guild to approach the editorial office of the Elektrėnai Chronicle with a suggestion to terminate the Cooperation Agreement in a reasonable time.
Read the full evaluation (in Lithuanian) here.
See more (in Lithuanian) in news portal Bernardinai.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute