Larionovaitė replaces Matonis as head of LRT TV news service

LRT announced on Wednesday that Audrius Matonis, head of the LRT TV’s news service, is leaving on May 15.

Larionovaitė will be tasked to integrate all news services – the TV, radio and news website – and coordinate their work, the LRT statement reads.

“I believe united LRT journalists will make the TV, radio and website audience even bigger. I have many ideas and determination and I want to contribute to a transparent, strong and independent public broadcaster,” Larionovaitė said.

Major tasks and renewal lie ahead of LRT, its director general Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė says. “A public broadcaster’s news services must closely cooperate, ensuring the maximum efficiency and trustworthiness and reach the audience where it is,” she said.

Larionovaitė joined the LRT’s news service while studying journalism at Vilnius University she graduated from in 1998. She worked for the LNK TV channel in 1999 and was the channel’s reporter in Brussels as of 2000. In 2005, she produced investigative program Žurnalisto Tyrimas (Journalist’s Investigation) while working for production company Spaudos Televizija.

Larionovaitė was one of the founders of the Lietuvos Rytas TV and led its news service since 2008. Since 2012, she’s been part of the team behind Lithuania’s longest news program Info Diena at Info TV, part of the LNK group.

Larionovaitė told BNS Lithuania on Wednesday her decision to leave Info TV was influenced by the publication earlier this week of a report by the State Security Department on business groups’ influence on political processes in Lithuania. The report contains a lot of information on MG Baltic which also owns Info TV.