Press release, 10 July 2014
The public information producers,
disseminators, participants and journalists have the right to keep the source
of information confidential and undisclosed, with the exception of the cases
provided for in the law.
Under the newly adopted provisions, measures
to disclose the source of information or to apply statutory coercive action aimed
at disclosing the source of information will be limited to those based on a
reasoned decision of the court, provided that the following conditions are met:
it is necessary to disclose the source of information for vitally important or
otherwise significant public interests; it is necessary to ensure the
protection of persons’ constitutional rights and freedoms and the
administration of justice; it is impossible to disclose the source of
information by any other means, or all other means have already been exhausted.
The law also stipulates that search and
seizure in offices, residential and auxiliary premises and vehicles of public
information producers, disseminators, participants, and journalists with a view
to disclosing the source of information shall be governed by the Code of Criminal
Procedure and made in the presence of either an authorised representative of a meeting
of representatives of journalists and publishers organisations or a witness suggested
by either the owner or the user of the premises or a vehicle. The meeting of
representatives of journalists and publishers organisations is required to
approve and submit a list of authorised representatives to the interested institutions.
A total of 69 Members of the Seimas voted in
favour of the amendments to the Law on the Provision of Information to the
Public (Draft Law No. XIIP-1210(2)) without any votes against and 16 abstentions.
Rimas
Rudaitis, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail:
[email protected]
