Amendments initiated by the president are aimed to enhance freedom of Lithuania’s media, democracy and respect for human rights, according to her.
“Force demonstrated by law enforcement as well as Soviet persecution methods are intolerable. We cannot allow peoples’ lives to be destroyed and Lithuania to be defamed because of incompetence and violence. In a democratic state, everyone must comply with the Constitution, respect human rights and protect media freedom,” said the president.
According to the president, media freedom is one of guarantees of democracy. Thus, journalists’ right and duty to inform the public must be respected and safeguarded.
Based on the amendments, any prosecution procedures which limit media freedom and restrict human rights – searches, seizures, phone tapping or secret surveillance – can be carried out only under circumstances vital to the public.
The amendment was motivated by recent incident where, following a leak of a report by the State Security Department, prosecutors questioned several reporters of the BNS news agency, seizing their computers and, as it turned out, tapping their conversations.
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