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Media Landscape - Lithuania

INTRODUCTION

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Situated on the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, Lithuania is the southernmost and largest of the three Baltic countries in terms of the population, territory and economy. Lithuania is the geographical centre of Europe, as the national Institute of France confirmed in 1989. The geographical centre lies just 24 km northwest of capital Vilnius. Lithuania shares borders with Belarus, Latvia, Poland and Russia (Kaliningrad). Its territory is 65,300 sq. km. The length of the Baltic Sea coastline is 99 km. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius (~541,300 inhabitants). Administratively, Lithuania is divided into 44 regions, and 52 districts; there are 92 cities (among them 11 under the national jurisdiction) and 22 urban-type settlements. Reform of the administrative-territorial division is under way. The country has a predominantly urban population of 3.389 million (2006) of which over 80 percent is of Lithuanian origin, 6.7 % Polish, 6.3 % Russian, and 3.5 % of other nationalities. The official language is Lithuanian, which is closely related to the old Sanskrit, belongs to the Baltic family of Indo-European languages and is the oldest language in Europe. The major religion is Roman Catholicism and there are small communities of Lutherans and Russian Orthodox believers.

Since regaining independence in 1990, Lithuania has made remarkable progress in terms of both its transformation to the democratic market economy and its advancement towards greater human development.

On 11 March 1990, Lithuania declared the re-establishment of its independence. In 2004 Lithuania became a full member of the EU, also a member of the World Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Political developments since the mid-80s have led to changes in the media landscape of Lithuania. During the 1989-1996 Lithuania’s mass media and the context it operates was reshaped from dependent to free mass media model. Majority of the countries media enterprises were privatized or new established, independent structure of printing and distribution was created. In the last ten years the situation of the Lithuanian mass media has completely changed: the old media system was replaced by a market –oriented system. Advertising has become the main source of income of the mass media. The arrival of the new technology (internet) has urged the majority of mass media companies to rethink and reshape their organizational structure.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

The press market development is in a highly competitive environment at local, national and international levels.

The daily circulation of newspapers amounts to 2,203,000 copies, the yearly circulation to 218.2 million copies in total. All newspapers are private. Newspapers and magazines are mainly published in Lithuanian (311 newspapers and 477 magazines), in Russian (18 newspapers and 9 magazines), in English (4 newspapers and 34 magazines), in German, Yid dish and other languages. There are 14 dailies published in Lithuania.

The amount of specialized magazines increased. The main tendency is toward more specialized monthly or bimonthly periodicals aimed at groups with particular interest in leisure activities, sports and hobbies. There are 543 published magazine and other periodical titles. Their yearly circulation is 59.2 million copies. TV guides remain the most read among weeklies, and women magazines among monthlies. The percentage of newspaper readers is remarkably lower than TV viewers.

One year ago the free newspaper 15 Minutes (15 minutes) was launched and made to the third position in the readership ranking. The titles with the highest circulation figures are tabloids.

An important characteristic of ownership changes in the print media market was internationalization. The magazine market attracted a lot of foreign investors from Scandinavia and Estonia. Concentration in the media market deals with the issue of transparency, since media ownership is one of the most hidden types of data in Lithuania.


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

With the exception of the national broadcaster, all other radio stations and television channels are commercial institutions that have been established in the route of sixteen years of independence in Lithuania.

The television market began to develop after foreign capital (from the USA, Great Britain and Scandinavian countries) poured into Lithuania. There is an increasing fragmentation of the television market. There are 31 television stations in Lithuania, 30 commercial and 1 public. The Lithuanian Television is broadcasting two national television programmes, LTV1 and LTV2.

Analogical television is still the main way of watching television in Lithuania and most TV companies rent the facilities from the state. The advertising market of both TV and radio is growing every year. The national broadcaster Lithuanian radio and television are financed from the state budget and advertising.

There are 47 commercial and 1 public radio stations in Lithuania. Among them there are 11 national, 7 regional and 30 local radio broadcasters. The public radio, Lithuanian radio is broadcasting three nation-wide radio programmes: LR1, LR2 and LR3. The remarkable thing is that public radio LR1 ranks as the most popular. The number of Lithuanians able to watch multi-channel TV (cable or satellite) programmes has been gradually growing, and in 2005 it reached 43.7%.


3. DIGITAL MEDIA

Digital television broadcasting should start by the end of 2007 in the five largest cities of Lithuania, and by the beginning of 2009 at least one digital terrestrial TV network should cover at least 95% of the country’s territory. The gradual switch-off of analogue TV would start in 2012.

Digital television Gala is the beginning of digitalisation of the Lithuanian TV market. It opens a new period in the area of television – digital video and audio quality and state-of-the-art technologies for managing the contents of television will give completely new opportunities to the viewer. Digital terrestrial TV development is greatly dependent on the state policy.


4. ONLINE MEDIA

The number of Internet users has been gradually increasing within three years. However, the rate of Internet usage is low comparing to the EU average, the total number of Internet subscribers is 31.7%.

The past five years have brought out a tendency that apart from having their own websites; the media have also shown efforts to turn these websites into news portals. Examples of these include Verslo žinios and Lietuvos rytas. In addition to running their websites, television and radio companies also create their own mini portals. For example, the portal LRT.lt of Lithuania’s national broadcaster both announces its shows and provides domestic and foreign news. Young people are the one of the most active groups of internet users.


5. NEWS AGENCIES

There are two news agencies in Lithuania: ELTA and BNS (Baltic News Service). The leadership belongs to BNS, the first private news agency in Lithuania.


6. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

There are two journalists’ organisations in Lithuania: the Journalists’ Union of Lithuania has over 700 members (as of January 2007), and the Journalists’ Society of Lithuania has about 100 members. Both organizations function as professional organizations but are not trade unions.

There are two more organizations dealing with media: The Lithuanian Newspaper Publishers Association that represents the publishers of national newspapers and National Regional and City Newspapers Publishers Association that represents regional press publishers.


7. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania guarantees the freedom of speech and f information. It is the main document regulating mass media competition and activity. The Law on Lithuanian Radio and Television and the Law on Telecommunications also regulate the media.

The Law on Electronic Communications, which came into force in 2004, applies to the internet content. The media in Lithuania are not controlled by the state power, and the legislation is very liberal. There is only one kind of subsidies granted to the Lithuania media, the Fund for the Support of the Press, Radio and Television, financed from the state budget.

Lithuania has no legislation for media market regulation or an anti-monopoly law. Thus, by default the State allows both monopoly rights and cross ownership. As a result, large sectors of the media belong to one and the same owner (Achemos grupė, MG Baltic, Rubicon).


8. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

The regulations of the Lithuania mass media are based on a self-regulation system. There are two self-regulation bodies: the ethical inspector (the ombudsman) and the Commission of Journalism and Publisher Ethics. The revised version of the Code of Ethics of Lithuanian Journalists and Publishers, adopted in 2005, lays down the main ethical provisions.

The ombudsman weights the nature of complains basing his decisions on the Code of Ethics. Both the Commission and Inspector have direct links to the government. The ombudsman is appointed by the Parliament and the Commission is regulated by law. The Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania is an independent institution with powers of regulation and supervision of the activities of radio and television broadcasters. The Commission is accountable to the Seimas (Parliament).


9. RECENT MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS

The Lithuanian Seimas adopted new amendments to the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public in 2006. A new Metro-type newspaper 15 minutes was successfully introduced in the Lithuanian media market and was at the third position by cover ranks in 2006.

The first effort to protect the interests and social guarantees of journalists was made in the end of the 2006 by establishing social dialogue with media owners. The leaders of Journalists’ Unions signed the first collective agreements with the employers of National Regional and Cities Publishers Association.

According the amended Law on the Provision of Information to the Public one more problem will be solved concerning the lack of independent sources on circulation figures, readership and official data about print media circulation. The newspapers will be charged to audit their circulations. In 2006 Telecoms operator Teo LT started to provide Internet digital television services. Teo provides these services under the name of GALA, offering more than 50 different channels to clients.


10. References

On line resources


11. AUTHOR

Audronė Nugaraitė – (PhD), Associate professor, Institute of Journalism, Vilnius University, Lithuania


12. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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