LEGAL INFORMATION

LAW ON THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC

Article 49. Inspector of Journalist Ethics

1. The Inspector of Journalist Ethics (hereinafter: the ‘Inspector’) shall be a state official who supervises the implementation of the provisions of this Law.
2. The Inspector shall be appointed for a five-year term of office by the Seimas from the candidates proposed by the organizations uniting producers, disseminators of public information and journalists, with the norms of the Code applying to activities of their members. The same person may not be appointed the Inspector for more than two successive terms of office. A person appointed as Inspector shall hold office until the appointment of a new Inspector.
3. A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania of good repute with a university degree and the competence necessary to perform his duties shall be appointed Inspector.
4. Members of the Seimas, the Government as well as civil servants of political (personal) confidence may not be appointed as Inspector. The Inspector and members of his family may not be linked with producers and/or disseminators of public information by employment relations and may not hold shares of producers and/or disseminators of public information. During his term of office, the Inspector may not participate in political activities.
5. The Inspector shall act in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, this Law and other laws, treaties ratified by the Republic of Lithuania, EU legal acts, the Code of Ethics of Lithuanian Journalists and Publishers and other legal acts.
6. The activities of the Inspector shall be based on the principles of legitimacy, impartiality, justice and publicity.
7. The Inspector may not hold any other elective or appointed posts and receive any other remuneration, except for remuneration set in accordance with the Law on the Remuneration of State Politicians, Judges and State Officials and for teaching or creative activities.
8. The Inspector shall be dismissed from office when:

1) his term of office expires and he is not appointed for another term of office;

2) he resigns;

3) he is absent from work due to temporary incapacity for work for more than 120 calendar days in succession or more than 140 days during the last 12 months, unless the laws provide that in the case of certain illnesses the post is retained for a longer period, or when the Inspector is unable to perform his duties pursuant to the conclusions of the Disability and Capacity for Work Establishment Office under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour;

4) a court judgement of conviction has become effective against him;

5) more than half of all the members of the Seimas have expressed no confidence in him;

6) he loses the citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.

9. When taking a decision, the Inspector may enlist the assistance of experts (groups of experts) which submit their conclusions regarding the assignment of press publications, audiovisual works, radio and television programmes or parts of programmes, Internet websites or other media and/or their content to the categories of information of erotic, pornographic and/or violent nature, as well as their conclusions on whether the public information incites discord on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, belief, convictions or views. The composition and number of experts (groups of experts) shall be approved by the Inspector. The experts (groups of experts) shall be liable under the law for the correctness of their conclusion (conclusions). Experts (groups of experts) shall operate in accordance with the rules of procedure approved by the Inspector. The description of assignment of the media to the categories of information of erotic and/or violent nature and the procedure for fixing the amounts of fees for assigning the media to the categories of information of erotic, pornographic and/or violent nature shall be established by the Government on the recommendation of the Inspector.
10. The activities of the Inspector shall be ensured by the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics. The Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics shall be a state budgetary body headed by the Inspector.
11. The Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics shall be a public legal entity and have a seal bearing the coat of arms of the State of Lithuania and the name Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics inscribed therein. The Inspector shall be held liable for the use and safekeeping of the seal. The seat of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics shall be in Vilnius, with the premises provided by the Government.
12. The activities of the Inspector, the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics and experts (expert groups) operating under it shall be financed from the state budget. The funds for these activities shall be allocated under a separate line.
13. The tasks, functions, rights and duties as well as the structure, organisation of work and financing of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics shall be laid down in the Regulations of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics approved by the Seimas.
14. The Inspector shall once a year report to the Seimas on his own activities and the activities of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics and, by 1 April each year, present an annual activity report. The report shall be published on the website of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics.

Article 50. Inspector’s Remit

1. The Inspector shall perform the following functions:

1) investigate the complaints (applications) of the persons concerned whose honour and dignity have been degraded in the media;

2) examine the complaints (applications) of the persons concerned in relation to violation of their right to protection of privacy in the media;

3) examine the complaints (applications) of the persons concerned in relation to violation of processing of their personal data in the media;

4) exercise, within the scope of his remit, supervision over implementation of the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information;

5) assess compliance with the principles of provision of information to the public set forth in this Law and other laws and legal acts regulating the provision of information to the public in providing information to the public;

6) submit proposals to the Seimas and other state institutions for improving this Law and other laws and legal acts regulating the provision of information to the public and implementation thereof;

7) on the basis of the conclusions of experts (groups of experts), assign press publications, audiovisual works, radio and television programmes or parts of programmes, the information society media or other media and/or their content to the categories of information of erotic, pornographic and/or violent nature and inform the State Tax Inspectorate under the Ministry of Finance about press publications of erotic and/or violent nature;

8) on the basis of the conclusions of experts (groups of experts), establish whether public information published in the media incites discord on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, belief, convictions or views;

9) cooperate with counterpart institutions of the European Union and other countries and, within the scope of his remit, represent the Republic of Lithuania in international organisations;

10) draw up and publish every two years an analytical survey – the guidelines for the development of a democratic culture in the field of provision of information to the public;

11) carry out monitoring of public information in the media, except for monitoring of radio and television programmes.

2. In performing the functions specified in paragraph 1 of this Article, the Inspector shall have the right to:

1) having information about violations that have not been specified in the complaints (applications), on his own initiative commence an investigation in accordance with the procedure set forth by this Law or refer the collected material to other competent state institutions for investigation; 

2) in accordance with the procedure established by this Law, obtain free of charge information from producers and disseminators of public information, including information published in the media managed by them (video and audio recordings of broadcast programmes, specimen of publications and copies thereof) necessary for the exercise of his functions;

3) obtain information, documents and other material necessary for the exercise of his functions from state and municipal institutions and agencies free of charge;

4) in accordance with the procedure set forth by law, however only to the extend it is necessary to perform his functions, get access to documents constituting a state, official, commercial or bank secret, also documents containing information about personal data protected by law;

5) without violating the rights and legitimate interests of persons, film, make photographs, sound and video recordings and use any other technical means during investigations in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law;

6) attend the sittings and meetings organised by the Seimas, the Government and other state institutions, take part in the activities of commissions and working groups set up by them, attend the meetings of regulatory and self-regulatory bodies governing the activities of producers and disseminators of public information when issues related to the implementation of the provisions of this Law, the activities of the Inspector or an investigation carried out by him are considered and express his opinion on the issues;

7) set up working groups and commissions for drafting legal acts and proposals, organising events and considering other relevant issues;

8) for the purpose of exercising the functions laid down in this Law and other laws, enlist the assistance of experts (groups of experts), establish their rules of procedure as well as payment procedure.

3. In performing the functions specified in paragraph 1 of this Article, the Inspector may take the following decisions:

1) issue a warning to producers and disseminators of public information, (natural) persons responsible for the content of the media about the noticed violations of this Law and other legal acts governing the provision of information to the public and request that they be eliminated;

2) request that a producer or disseminator of public information refute, in accordance with the established procedure, the published false information degrading the honour and dignity of a person or damaging his professional reputation or legitimate interests, or provide the person with a possibility to reply and refute such information himself;

3) apply to the competent state institutions and the Association regarding the noticed violations of this Law and other legal acts governing the provision of information to the public;

4) draw up reports of administrative offences in the cases set out in the Code of Administrative Offences;

5) consider cases of administrative offences and impose administrative penalties in the cases set out in the Code of Administrative Offences;

6) recognise the complaint (application) as unjustified;

7) terminate the investigation commenced on own initiative if the violations or circumstances due to which the investigation was started have not been corroborated;

8) refuse to investigate the complaint (application);

9) terminate the examination of the complaint (application).

4. A complaint (application) submitted to the Inspector must specify:

1) the name, surname and address of the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application);

2) the specific media and publication or a part of programme which contained the information degrading the honour and dignity of the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application), violating the person’s right to protection of  privacy or the interests of minors;

3) what disseminated information contradicts reality, in what way the right to privacy has been violated and the interests of minors have been affected;  

4) the content of the application to the Inspector;

5) the date of writing of the complaint (application) and the signature of the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application).

5. The complaint (application) which does not contain at least one of the requirements specified in paragraph 4 of this Article shall not be examined unless the Inspector decides otherwise. In the event that the Inspector refuses to examine the complaint (application) due to the shortcomings of content requirements, the person (applicant) shall be informed thereof within five working days specifying the shortcomings. Upon elimination of the shortcomings, the person’s (applicant’s) complaint (application) shall be accepted for examination with the date of lodgement thereof considered to be the date of receipt of the complaint (application) meeting all the requirements.
6. In the cases referred to in points 1-3 of paragraph 1 of this Article, the Inspector shall only examine complaints (applications) lodged by persons whose rights have been violated in the media or the legal representatives as well as appointed representatives of such persons. In these cases, anonymous complaints (applications) shall not be investigated.
7. In the case referred to in point 4 of paragraph 1 of this Article, the Inspector shall examine the complaints (applications) lodged not only by persons whose rights have been violated in the media or their legal representatives, but also complaints (applications) lodged by other persons, including anonymous complaints (applications). In that case, the Inspector may start an investigation on his own initiative.
8. Written or oral appeals, applications and notifications by the persons (applicants) concerned which do not contain complaints against the actions of producers and/or disseminators of public information, but only request to provide explanations, information or required documents, to express an opinion or submit a conclusion regarding the implementation of the provisions of this Law shall not be considered as complaints (applications).
9. The Inspector shall refuse to examine a complaint (application) and shall return it to the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) where:

1) investigation of the circumstances specified in the complaint (application) falls outside the scope of remit of the Inspector. In this case, the complaint (application) shall, within five working days, be forwarded to an entity of public administration which has the required powers and the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) shall be informed thereof. Where an institution competent to examine the complaint (application) of a person is a court, the complaint (application) shall be returned to the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) and the necessary information shall be provided;

2) upon commencing the examination of the complaint (application), it transpires that the complaint (application) in relation to the same issue is pending in court; In that case, the examination of the complaint (application) shall be suspended until the complaint (application) has been investigated by the court. The person who has lodged the complaint (application) shall be informed of the suspension of examination of the complaint (application). In that case, the investigation of the complaint (application) shall be renewed only upon request of the person (applicant) and upon notifying the Inspector thereof in writing;

3) the court or the Inspector has already taken a decision on the same issue and the person (applicant) has not provided any new factual data allowing appealing against the decision. In that case, the person (applicant) shall be informed of the decision not to examine the complaint (application) within five working days from the date of receipt of the complaint (application);

4) it is impossible to commence the investigation of the complaint (application) due to the shortage of data and when requested, the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) does not provide the data necessary for the investigation of the complaint (application) or is unable to provide them for objective reasons;

5) a procedural decision has been adopted to institute criminal proceedings in relation to the subject matter of the complaint (application);

6) the person (applicant) withdraws the complaint (application) and informs the Inspector thereof in writing.  

10. In the case specified in point 6 of paragraph 9 of this Article, where a person (applicant) withdraws a part of the claims from his complaint (application), only that part of the complaint (application) from which no claims have been withdrawn shall be examined.
11. In the event that a decision to refuse to examine the complaint (application) is taken, the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) must be notified of the reasons for such refusal.
12. The investigation of a complaint (application) shall be terminated if circumstances specified in paragraph 9 of this Article transpire in the course of investigation.
13. The Inspector shall examine the complaint (application) received within three months of receipt thereof.
14. If a complaint (application) is justified, the Inspector may take one of the decisions specified in paragraph 2 of this Article. The Inspector shall communicate the decision to the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application), producers and/or disseminators of public information, persons responsible for the content of the media.
15. In cases where a complaint (application) is considered unjustified, the Inspector must provide a reasoned reply in writing to the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application).
16. The decisions of the Inspector, except for the cases specified in paragraph 17 of this Article, shall be published on the website of the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics. In such cases, the operative part of the Inspector’s decision must be forthwith published in the same media wherein the Inspector established the violation.
17. In cases where the publication of the Inspector’s decision may violate the rights and/or legitimate interests of the person or where the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) does not request to publish the decision, the Inspector’s decision shall not be made public. In such cases, the Inspector’s decision shall only be communicated to the person (applicant) who has lodged the complaint (application) and the producer and/or disseminator of public information who manages the media wherein the violation was established.
18. The decisions of the Inspector may be appealed against in court within 30 days of their publication or, where the decision is not made public, of receipt of the notification of adoption thereof.
19. Failure to comply with the lawful requirements of and decisions adopted by the Inspector or any other hindrance of the Inspector in exercising the rights or powers granted to him by this Law shall incur administrative liability.