Over 10,000 people in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, protested outside the parliament, the Seimas, on 8 April 2026 against proposed changes to legislation governing the country’s public broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), BNS reported. The demonstration was organised by the Association of Professional Journalists (ZPA). Nevertheless, Seimas speaker Juozas Olekas insisted that the ruling coalition would not back down on the issue, BNS reported. Mindaugas Sinkevicius, chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP), expressed readiness to discuss “corrections” to the proposed law, but rejected scrapping the draft bill altogether, BNS reported. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that the government should take into account the concerns raised by the Council of Europe’s independent advisory body, the Venice Commission, stressing that Lithuania could not risk raising doubts about the democratic process or media freedom.
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