Resentment towards the EU anti-discrimination truck by municipal authorities did not prevent the awareness-raising event on the 20th of August in Vilnius – business enterprise “Hyper Rimi” offered its parking lot for the action after refusal to allow the truck on municipal territory.
The EU “For Diversity. Against Discrimination.” truck is travelling around Europe to promote diversity, tolerance and raising awareness about EU legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender, disability, age, religion and belief, race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Municipal authorities of Vilnius and Kaunas have repeatedly demonstrated ignorance and disrespect of the EU anti-discrimination principles and legislation and have refused permissions for the truck to be displayed on their territories. This year, the action has been saved by the socially responsible business enterprise “Rimi Lithuania”, which has provided the parking lot next to one of the shopping centers in Vilnius.
The action has also been planned at the shopping center Molas in Kaunas, however a few days before the event the administration of the center withdrew its invitation. It is likely that this decision has been influenced by groundless allegations of incompatibility of the EU campaign with "Lithuanian values" by officials of Kaunas municipality, including the Mayor. Negative publicity in the local media have also had its effect.
While commenting on official decisions to refuse permits media provided misleading information about the goals and content of the campaign. For example, on August 7, 2008 Lrytas.lt news portal published the article “Kaunas Doesn’t Want Homosexuals in the City”. By providing partial and biased information the author of the article clearly violated the Code of Professional Ethics of Journalists and Publishers and possibly certain provisions of the Public Information Act, requiring publication of fair and unbiased information based on true knowledge, guided by the principles of equality, tolerance and respect for every human being.
In its public appeal, a group of Lithuanian NGOs, including the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, called upon the Commission on Ethics of Journalists and Publishers and the Ethics Inspector to evaluate the publication and sanction the inappropiate professional conduct of the journalist and the possibly the publisher.
In addition, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute in cooperation with other NGOs - Center for Equality Advancement, Youth Centre “In Corpore”, Center For Tolerant Youth, Roma Society Centre, and "All Different, All Equal" Campaign - issued public statement denouncing the position and arguments of municipal authorities.
See full text of appeal regarding the media article here (in Lithuanian).
See full text of public statement by NGOs here (in Lithuanian).
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute