“We are expecting guests for a direct discussion of the problems, we want to hear the reasons behind the repeated violations,” Edmundas Vaitekūnas, chairman of the commission, told BNS Lithuania.
Broadcasts of Swedish-registered channel RTR Planeta were banned in Lithuania twice in 2015 and 2016 over instigation of war and hatred. Both violations were imposed for three months over statements by Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Following both sanctions, the Lithuanian watchdog recorded repeated violations.
In 2015, Lithuanian broadcasters were instructed to move RTR Planeta to packages of paid programs, however, the restriction was recalled after signals from the European Commission about possible violation of the EU law.