Lithuanian Parliament to Consider Reduction of Russian Content on TV

VILNIUS (Sputnik) — The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has registered the amendments to the Law on Provision of Information to the Public, which prescribe the reduction of Russian TV programs at the country's broadcasting network, a member of the political group of the conservative Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats at the Seimas said Wednesday.

"We should integrate ourselves into the European information space, and this is one of the ways to do it. We are too much influenced by the media of third countries, therefore we are sure that the measure of integrating us into the European space would be healthy to our society. Is is a pity we did not do this earlier, now we have to fix the past mistakes… Third countries in the East, specifically Russia, have a great influence on us… I hope the parliament will adopt the amendments this time," Laurynas Kasciunas said as quoted by the Baltic News Service.

According to the amendments to the law, TV programs in official EU languages should amount to at least 90 percent of re-broadcast programs, except for specialized packages.

In 2014, the Seimas canceled similar amendments, which were proposed by President Dalia Grybauskaite as a measure to fight alleged propaganda and misinformation.

The new draft law requires no language proportions for TV programs in the country.