Successful defence of the constitutional right to criticise the government

We successfully represented journalist Virginijus Savukynas in a dispute with public broadcaster LRT. The Vilnius City District Court annulled the decision of the LRT Ethics Ombudsperson and the resolution of the LRT Council, which found that the journalist Virginijus Savukynas violated the LRT Code of Ethics by publishing a post on his personal Facebook account criticising the Minister of Justice, ordered the journalist to remove the post and proposed that the public service broadcaster impose a penalty.

This is a unique case in which a court has restricted a person’s right to criticise the government. This is the first time in case law that a court has intervened in LRT’s internal decisions against journalists for ethical violations. The Vilnius City District Court ruled that the LRT’s decisions mentioned above restricted the journalist’s constitutional right to criticise the government.

Our team representing the client

Our client was represented by partner Kęstutis Švirinas and associate Domantė Lunytė.