“Regarding LRT’s decision to start an internal investigation, in my opinion, it could have been made much earlier,” the comment from the Speaker of the Seimas reads, which BNS shared on Thursday through his advisor Gitana Letukienė.
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“At that time, LRT General Director Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė publicly stated that if she had to choose whom to believe – an LRT journalist or the Social Democrats – she would believe the LRT journalist. In my view, all circumstances should first have been objectively clarified before making such public statements. Therefore, now that LRT has conducted an internal investigation, it will be valuable to review its conclusions,” he said.
Due to the mentioned incident, the prosecution decided on Thursday to reopen the pre-trial investigation, which it had decided to terminate earlier this week.
On Tuesday, J. Olekas said he trusted the law enforcement decision to terminate the pre-trial investigation but admitted seeing unanswered questions. However, with the investigation reopened, the Speaker says it would be inappropriate to comment on its progress.
“Since the pre-trial investigation has been reopened, it would be inappropriate to comment on its progress or speculate about possible conclusions. As I mentioned earlier, I trust law enforcement agencies, so I am confident that they will thoroughly assess all significant circumstances and provide answers not only to the questions I have but also to those of public concern,” he stated.
BNS reported that Mindaugas Jackevičius, head of the LRT news portal, initiated an internal investigation on Tuesday regarding E. Samoškaitė’s possible breach of work duties after the prosecution found that the pen recorder found at the council meeting belonged to the journalist.
According to LRT, M. Jackevičius confirmed that E. Samoškaitė did not request permission from him for such recording, and he himself did not give any order to secretly record.
Until the disciplinary investigation is completed, the journalist will continue not to write on topics related to the Social Democrats and will not lead the “Day’s Topics.”
E. Samoškaitė herself admits that the pen belonged to her but denies leaving the device at the mentioned meeting.
