Inhabitants: 2.79 million (2021)
Households: 1.4 million (2021)
Religions: Roman Catholic (72.2%), Russian Orthodox (4.1%)
Largest city: Vilnius (569,902, January 2021)
Form of government: semi-presidential republic
Head of State: President Gitanas Nauseda (since 2019)
Prime Minister: Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte (since 2020)
EU-member since: 2004
Unemployment rate: 2021: 7,1%; 2012: 12,4%
State indebtedness: 25.54 billion euros (2021); 13.55 billion euros (2013)
Gross domestic product: $55.89 billion (2021); $67.4 billion (2013)

Digital advertising spending: 104.1 million euros (2022)
Television viewing time per inhabitant: 209 minutes per day (2021)
Large media and communication companies: LRT, TV3 Group, MG Baltic Media, Ekspress Group, Schibsted/Postimees Grupp, Respublika Group, Diena Media
Broadcasting fees: no

History and Profile

As in other former satellite states, the Lithuanian media experienced a rapid process of de-Sovietization between 1990 and 1991. State censorship was formally eliminated and journalists were able to report under conditions of freedom of the press and freedom of expression for the first time. With the occupation by the USSR in 1940, the entire press sector was placed under the control of the Communist Party. However, the propaganda activities had the side effect that the print sector in particular was massively subsidized and a flourishing, if unfree, newspaper landscape emerged. The media under Soviet rule consistently reported strictly only on political and serious issues; entertainment and leisure formats were considered remnants of the bourgeoisie - media entertainment in the classic sense was only permitted by decree at the end of the 1970s. During this period there were also dissident newspapers subsidized by the Catholic Church and various radio stations that could be received from abroad (e.g. Radio Free Europe, financed by the CIA), but their popularity among Lithuanian citizens was limited.

But when Mikhail Gorbachev began his policy of glasnost in the mid-1980s, journalists threw off all the shackles of strict Soviet censorship. The citizens' renewed interest in politics led to a further explosion in media usage. The newspapers, which had previously reported dryly on Communist Party politics to an audience consisting exclusively of party members for decades, quickly developed into engines of reform. Newspapers such as Komjaunimo tiesa (whose circulation increased fivefold to 522,000 copies between 1988 and 1989), the foreign-produced weekly magazine Gimtasis krastas or the first private radio station M1, founded in 1989, developed into forums in which the idea of independence from Moscow was first formulated and debated. Numerous journalists and editors-in-chief in the largest newspaper houses became influential members of the Sajudisindependence movement, which was founded with the newspaper Respublika in September 1989 also received its journalistic mouthpiece.

When the Soviet military attempted to use force to reverse the proclaimed independence during the events of January 1991, on what was known as "Bloody Sunday", the television tower in Vilnius was occupied and other communication channels blocked. The Sajudis leadership led by Vytautas Landsbergis therefore had to communicate with the outside world via a pirate radio station hidden in the Lithuanian parliament building. However, television and radio stations in the second largest city of Kaunas were not intimidated and continued to broadcast in Lithuanian and English. Above all, due to the courageous efforts of numerous media during the precarious situation in 1990/91, journalists enjoyed high recognition and hero status among the population in the years that followed.

Finally, the Constituent Assembly on March 11, which ushered in independence and, as one of its first official acts, passed a law on freedom of the press, again included numerous journalists. During the first legislative period (1990-1992), ten percent of the Seimas deputies were authors and journalists. In the years that followed, the media landscape continued to flourish. More newspapers were founded (the high point was 1995, when there were a total of 477 newspapers nationwide) and the private TV sector began to flourish. Tele3 was the first private broadcaster to go on air in 1993, followed shortly afterwards by LNK and BTV. In the mid-1990s, Lithuania was rightly seen as a model for an excellently developed liberal post-Soviet media system.

From the 2000s onwards, the Lithuanian media experienced a serious crisis of legitimacy. Public trust in the mass media fell by a third compared to the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to observers of the Lithuanian media system, this is partly the result of radical liberalisation, which, however, was not accompanied by an internationalisation of ownership structures. In addition, there were economic difficulties that began in 1996 and were exacerbated by the global financial crisis of 2007/2008 - GDP growth fell by 14.8 percent in 2009, and GDP per capita was around 19,500 US dollars. Large parts of the population could no longer afford or did not want to read a newspaper every day, the remaining readership was lured with increasingly undemanding general interest and celebrity topics and the number of private TV channels specialising in entertainment formats rose to 55 providers.

The Lithuanian economy has now recovered. GDP per capita has now risen to almost 43,000 US dollars (as of 2022). Nevertheless, the major upheavals in the media market could not be stopped - especially due to the advancing digitalization in the sector. Today, the media in Lithuania is largely controlled by local elites, or as Irmina Matonyte, economics professor at ISM University Vilnius, calls them, local media barons. Also due to the historical role that journalists played in the independence movement, it is now media elites who can exert significant pressure on politicians (perhaps more than in other EU member states).

media companies and corporations

LRT
Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija (LRT, formerly LTV) is the public broadcaster in Lithuania. LRT started its radio program in 1926 and began TV broadcasting in 1957. At first there were only thirty television sets in the entire country, a number that rose rapidly by 1975, when the program was broadcast in color. The most important program has always been "Panorama", the evening news program. When LRT wanted to report on the riots of 1991, the transmitter station was occupied by KGB agents and Russian soldiers for 222 days (see History). Since the beginning of 2015, LRT has been completely advert-free. This was decided as part of an amendment to the Law on Lithuanian Broadcasting. In the future, LRT will be financed exclusively through state expenditure, sponsorship information and income from isolated commercial activities. According to the broadcaster's own information, the budget in 2020 was 29 million euros, of which almost 62 percent went to the program, about 32 percent to personnel costs and the rest to administrative costs. There was a significant increase in 2021 - the Lithuanian national budget provided for 53.8 million euros.

MG Baltic Media
The MG Group (until 2021 MG Baltic), through its media division MG Baltic Media, controls the largest private broadcaster in terms of market share, LNK, including its sister channels TV1, Info TV, 2TV and BTV. MG Baltic Media also owns the magazine publishing group UPG and the telecommunications company Mediafon. From 2006 to 2017, the group also operated the news website alfa.lt, which now belongs to Naujien? centras. Overall, the entire MG Group recorded sales of 693 million euros in 2020, and profits amounted to 30.4 million euros. However, only around 10 percent of this goes to MG Baltic Media. In 2020, the entire group employed around 3,600 people.

Respublika Group
Respublika Publication Group publishes the right-wing Lithuanian-language daily newspaper of the same name, which has had a Russian-language counterpart since 1991. Founded in 1989, Respublika also publishes the tabloid Vakaro žinios, which has enjoyed significant nationwide reach for years. However, the newspaper increasingly published false news about the Covid vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the claim that the vaccination costs more people their lives than would otherwise die from the coronavirus. In 2021 and 2022, the newspaper was a vocal supporter of the Big Family Defense March, a nationalist Eurosceptic movement that opposes the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, LGBT rights, and vaccinations. The newspaper gained further notoriety when it criticized Lithuania's foreign policy line of supporting Ukraine following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As a result, the two largest retail chains in Lithuania (Rimi Baltic and Iki) and the Lithuanian Post stopped distributing the newspaper Respublika and its subsidiary tabloid Vakaro žinios.

Diena Media
Diena Media is the second leading newspaper publisher in Lithuania alongside the Respublika Group and publishes one of the country's best-known newspapers, the daily newspaper of the same name. Other important publications are "Vilniaus Diena", "Klaipeda" and "Kauno Diena". The latter is the largest regional newspaper in the country (Kaunas) and was owned by the Norwegian Orkla Media Group between 1998 and 2007. In 2010, the investor group Baltic Corporate Finance acquired 51 percent of the shares in Diena Media.

TV3 Group
In 2017, TV3 Group (then known as All Media Baltics) was established, which is part of the telecommunications company Bit? Group and managed by Providence Equity, a US private equity fund. In the same year, the then All Media Baltics acquired all shares of the Estonian company Viasat, as well as the television channels “TV3”, “TV6”, “TV8”, the radio station “Power Hit Radio” and other brands that previously belonged to the Swedish media group Modern Times Group.

Ekspress Group
The Estonian media company Ekspress Group is active in Lithuania, as well as in Latvia, Estonia and, until recently, Ukraine. The media segment includes, for example, the online portal Delfi, several other news portals, the publication of newspapers, books and magazines in Estonia. The printing services segment includes Printall AS. In 2021, it was decided to sell the Printall printing house. The main subsidiaries of Ekspress Grupp are: AS Ekspress Meedia, A/S Delfi, UAB Delfi, SIA Bi?ešu Paradize, AS Õhtuleht Kirjastus, Adnet Media UAB, SIA Altero, Babahh Media OÜ, Kinnisvarakeskkond OÜ, Linna Ekraanid OÜ, SIA D Screens, OÜ Hea Lugu, AS Printall, AS Express Post. The Ekspress Grupp also previously owned the Estonian information telephone number Ekspress Hotline and the bookstore chain Rahva Raamat.

Tab. I: Most popular TV channels in Lithuania 2023

television station	owner	type	broadcast start
LRT TV	Lithuanian National Radio and Television	public law	1957
LRT Plius	Lithuanian National Radio and Television	public law	2003
LRT Lituanica	Lithuanian National Radio and Television	public law	2007
LNK	MG Baltic Media	private	1995
BTV	MG Baltic Media	private	1991
Info TV	MG Baltic Media	private	2007
TV1	MG Baltic Media	private	2003
2TV	MG Baltic Media	private	2007
TV3	TV3 Group	private	1993
TV6	TV3 Group	private	2002
TV8	TV3 Group	private	2011
TV3 Film	TV3 Group	private	2003
TV3 Sport	TV3 Group	private	2009
TV3 Sport 2	TV3 Group	private	2018
TV3 Sport Open	TV3 Group	private	2021
Lietuvos rytas TV	Lietuvos rytas	private	2004
Delfi TV	Ekspress Grupp	private	2019

Source: Own representation

Internet

Of the Baltic states, Lithuania currently has the lowest internet usage rate, although it is still very high at 88 percent in 2022 - equivalent to 2.35 million users. As in other European countries and around the world, the usage rate has increased rapidly over the past 20 years. In 2000, Lithuania had just 6.4 percent of the population who were internet users - a similar figure to Latvia, where the proportion was 6.3 percent. By comparison, in Estonia the proportion of internet users was already 28.6 percent at that time.

The most visited websites in Lithuania include the YouTube and Google portals from Alphabet Inc. (ranks 1 and 2) and the social network Facebook from Meta Platforms, Inc. (rank 4). The Wikipedia encyclopedia from the Wikimedia Foundation also plays an important role for Lithuanians (rank 8). The strong presence of the websites of Baltic media groups is also noticeable. These include the very successful news portal Delfi from the Ekspress Grupp in the Baltic States (rank 3), but the well-known news portal 15min from the Postimees Group is also represented here (rank 6). Also worth mentioning are the online car sales company Autoplius (rank 10) and the online retailer Skelbiu (rank 7) from the Baltic Classfieds Group, which specializes in classifieds portals.

Tab. II: The ten most visited websites in Lithuania, March 2023

Rank	Webpage:	Description	Parent company
1.	YouTube.com	Video portal	Alphabet Inc.
2.	Google.com	Search engine	Alphabet Inc.
3.	Delfi.lt	News	Ekspress Grupp
4.	Facebook.com	Social network	Meta Platforms, Inc.
5.	Lrytas.lt	News	Lietuvos Rytas Media Group
6.	15min.lt	News	Postimees Group
7.	Skelbiu.lt	e-commerce	Baltic Classifieds Group
8.	Wikipedia.org	Encyclopedia	Wikimedia Foundation
9.	Swedbank.lt	online banking	Swedbank AB
10.	Autoplius.lt	online car sales	Baltic Classifieds Group

Source: Semrush.com

Regulations

Laws: On July 15, 1996, the Seimas adopted the Law on Implementation of Mass Media in Lithuania, which is the basis for the regulation of the audiovisual sector. In 2015, the Law on Public Information Management System was adopted. It sets out the basis for the organization and operation of the public information management system in Lithuania, including media supervision and regulation.

Media supervision: The Lietuvos authority radijo ir televizijos komisija (LRTK) is entrusted by the Lithuanian Parliament with regulating the broadcasting sector. The work of the authority is regulated by the Constitution and is based in particular on the Information Act of 2000, an update of the Media Act of 1996. Together with another authority, the Communications Regulatory Authority (Rysiu Reguliavimo Tarnyra, RRT), the LRTK is responsible for the allocation of frequencies and compliance with youth protection regulations.

Licensing: Media companies in Lithuania must apply for a license from the LRTK to provide radio and television broadcasting services. The LRTK reviews applications and issues licenses in accordance with legal requirements. There are also special requirements for licensing foreign broadcasters in Lithuania.

Content regulation: The LRTK is also responsible for regulating the content of radio and television programs in Lithuania. It ensures that programs comply with national laws and regulations, including rules on program quality, independence of reporting, protection of minors and respect for human rights.

freedom of the press: Lithuania has a freedom of the press, which is protected by law. Media outlets and journalists have the right to report and disseminate information freely, without censorship or restrictions by the government or other institutions. However, there are laws and regulations restricting the dissemination of hate speech, defamation, and other illegal content.

Self-regulation: In addition to state media regulation, there are also self-regulatory mechanisms for the media in Lithuania. The print sector regulates itself. This happens, for example, through the Lithuanian Journalists' Association, which was set up by the Lithuanian Journalists' Union and various other interest groups. This sets the ethical guidelines for journalists and handles complaints from citizens about the work of journalists.

Sources/Literature

• Kemp, Simon: Digital 2022: Lithuania. Datareportal (2022).
• LRT: Annual budget 2020-2021, 2020
• Nugaraité, Audroné: “The Lithuanian Media Landscape”. In Georgios Terzis (ed.), European Media Governance: National and Regional Dimensions. Bristol: Intellect Books (2007), 387-399
• Semrush: Most visited websites in Lithuania, March 2023.
• Sükösd, Miklós & Péter Bajomi-Lázár (eds.): Reinventing Media: Media Policy Reform in East-Central Europe. Budapest: Central European University Press (2003).
• The Lithuania Tribune: MG Baltic Media's FY revenue down 12 pct to EUR 58 mln, 2018.