News analysis: Lithuania faces information security conundrum

Lithuania, the Baltic country which has found itself enveloped in regional geopolitical tensions recently, once again returns to its fundamental matters, such as national identity and preservation of its culture.

These questions arise anew, due to increased pressure from deteriorating EU-Russia's relations.

Information security issues prevail in many current public debates in Lithuania, an independent country since 1990 and a part of NATO and the European Union since 2004.

Some officials and experts point to the urgent need to preserve and strengthen the tiny Baltic nation's identity and pride, rather than focus exclusively on increasing the state's defence capabilities, or "hard powers".

The identity problem becomes even more relevant, bearing in mind enormous emigration flows from Lithuania which were being observed after global financial crisis hit the Baltic country in 2008-2009 and somewhat slowed down recently.

"Our culture, our civilization, our identity are our main values, and we are to protect them," Sarunas Birutis, minister of culture of Lithuania, said during a conference on defense issues at the presidential palace in Vilnius earlier this week.

"Everything else, such as power stations, roads, ports, could be possessed inside the empire as well," he added.

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite stressed while opening the event that Lithuania, as a small nation, needs to unite all forces, including politicians and journalists.

The president underlined the growing importance of the information sphere.

"We see that very often conflicts start with informational tension, propaganda attempts and cyber attacks, and only afterwards, perhaps, but not always, they evolve into a conventional conflict and confrontation," the head of state said.

Along with the efforts to increase Lithuania's military financing and consolidate its defence capabilities, the country struggles to balance its reaction to quite a few Russian television channels broadcasted in Lithuania.

The doubts on where the media freedom ends and turns into a hostile action re-emerges in public debates and official meetings repeatedly.

Earlier this week, Lithuania's minister of foreign affairs Linas Linkevicius and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier focused on the efforts to counter Russian information activities which is being observed among Russian speaking audience both in Lithuania and Germany.

"We have agreed on a joint plan of action regarding intensified cooperation aimed at supporting media, implementation of public education projects and fostering closer ties among our civil societies," Linkevicius said after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Vilnius finds itself among the most outspoken critics among the EU capitals when it comes to condemning the information activities by the Kremlin.

On April 8, the Radio and Television Commission, local broadcast media watchdog, took a decision to ban Russian-language station RTR Planeta for three months, according to the spokesperson of the watchdog. The ban entered into force on April 13.

In the past, the commission has banned certain Russian programs from being rebroadcast in Lithuania, however, the current ruling on RTR Planeta is the first time it ordered a TV station off the air.

In accordance with legal procedures, the commission notified the producer of the programme, the authority, which registered the programme and the European Commission on the persistent infringements.

The content of some RTR programmes "incited to hatred, instigated military moods, approved military intervention into a sovereign state and disseminated biased information", the Radio and Television Commission stated.

Nevertheless, some critics insist that this kind of bans could undermine freedom of speech in the country. Endit