Lithuania report launched: time to reform regulation
The Lithuania report in the TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008 series was launched in Vilnius today, 6 June. The event was attended by representatives of the main stakeholders, including regulators, Parliament, the Government, media, and universities.
Artūras Račas, the report’s author, stressed the urgency of reforming broadcast regulation. Regulatory tasks are currently dispersed among too many bodies. Rather than merging all these bodies, however, more competencies should be given to the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK, Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos komisija), the main regulator for commercial broadcasting. “Authority over the advertising market should be put in the hands of a single authority instead of divided among three institutions,” Mr. Račas said.
Mr. Račas also stressed that the criteria of civil society representation in the LRTK and in the Council of Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRTT, Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos taryba), which regulates the public service broadcaster, should be changed to make sure that more competent and professional people sit on these bodies. “People who do not understand anything about broadcasting and advertising get appointed to the governing body of the public service broadcaster,” Mr. Račas said.
Marius Lukošiūnas, author of the original TV across Europe report, welcomed the suggestion that the criteria for including ‘civil society’ in the regulatory bodies should be revised. One option would be to include non-governmental organisations that represent viewers and listeners.
Andrius Vaišnys of the Institute of Journalism, Vilnius University, stressed the need for debate on whether, given the changes triggered by new technology, Lithuania’s ‘television model’ should be remain the same.
Nerijus Maliukevičius, the head of LRTK, agreed with the report’s recommendation to restrict the amount of self-promotional clips aired by broadcasters. “We see lots of such promos and people are tired of them,” said Mr. Maliukevičius.
On the prospects for Lithuanian Television (LTV), the public service broadcaster, Mr. Maliukevičius argued that it is too late now to introduce the licence fee. This should have been done in the 1990s when people would have been ready to pay. Another way has to be found to secure funding for LTV.
Audronė Nugaraitė, also from the Institute of Journalism at Vilnius University, welcomed the recommendation to regulate media cross-ownership. Other participants talked about the need to reform local broadcasting. Some local stations are owned by MPs, a situation that some described as “a huge problem”.
