LRT journalist Eglė Samoškaitė reported on July 12 that a guard at the Gruzdžiai Socialization Center in Kunionys may have sexually harassed a 14-year-old girl housed there.
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At the same time on Friday, it was reported that after this publication, law enforcement’s attention turned to the journalist who wrote the article and LRT – a demand was made to disclose the source of the information, although the Public Information Act grants journalists the right to keep their source confidential.
LRT announced that it appealed this decision by the Šiauliai District Prosecutor’s Office. According to LRT, such a demand is directly related to revealing the journalist’s source confidentiality.
The Journalists’ Professional Association also sided with LRT. “The prosecutor’s office demands that the LRT journalist disclose the source of information who informed the journalist about the possible sexual violence used against a minor. And the court, disregarding the norms established by law, confirmed this demand with an unmotivated decision. We consider this news scandalous and posing a serious threat to media freedom,” the association posted on its Facebook page.
The demand is no longer in place
15min contacted the Šiauliai District Prosecutor’s Office with questions, but it turned out that the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office is handling the matter. The General Prosecutor’s Office leadership also intervened.
“To ensure the fastest and most thorough investigation of the possibly committed criminal offense, by the decision of the Deputy General Prosecutor, the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office was assigned to organize and lead this pre-trial investigation,” said Milda Rimkė, spokesperson for the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office, to 15min.
She confirmed that until now, two separate pre-trial investigations were conducted – one at the Šiauliai District Prosecutor’s Office and the other at the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office.
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What is the investigation about?
On Friday, they were merged into one pre-trial investigation regarding the illegal collection of information about a private person’s life, as well as disclosure and use, and unauthorized disclosure of pre-trial data.
These are criminal offenses provided for in Articles 167, 168, and 247 of the Criminal Code.
However, the demand to disclose the source no longer exists.
“After merging the mentioned pre-trial investigations, due to changes in the volume and content of the available data, the prosecutor leading the pre-trial investigation no longer needs to obtain such information from the public institution Lithuanian National Radio and Television to disclose the information source. The public information provider has been informed about the changed situation in the pre-trial investigation,” said M. Rimkė.
The pre-trial investigation is organized and led by a prosecutor from the 4th division of the Kaunas District Prosecutor’s Office Kaunas Branch.
According to M. Rimkė, the pre-trial investigation was initiated upon receiving a report about a possibly committed criminal offense. When asked whether there are suspects, special witnesses, or victims in the investigation, she said she could not disclose “more information about the procedural status of persons involved in the investigation,” as “this is pre-trial investigation data.”
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