BBC Monitoring is reporting that Lithuania’s parliament (Seimas) last week debated the prospects of creating a TV channel dedicated to countering what it said is near non-stop propaganda from Russia.  They also considered imposing a quote on Russian channels and TV programmes coming into Lithuania.

One immediate step under consideration was to reduce broadcasts in Russian. “One cannot deny that Russian television channels have become weapons of the Russian information war against Ukraine, the West, and Lithuania. Another question is this: How should one respond to this propaganda?” reported the BBC.

One suggestion was to cut the number of Russian TV channels coming into the country, although it was recognised that this could not apply to satellite TV. “For more than three decades in Lithuania one can watch satellite television programmes. Of course, not everyone has the necessary equipment for this, and if the flow of the Russian programs is restricted, the biggest portion of the viewers probably will not install it purposefully,” stated the BBC report.

“It is really doubtful whether the cable televisions, after the enactment of the 10 per cent restriction for the programs of non-EU countries, will remove from their packages such notable Russian propaganda bugles as RTR, Perviy Baltiyskiy Kanal [First Baltic Channel], and not the less-watched Dozd, which opposes the regime of Vladimir Putin, or Ukrainian television,” quoted the BBC report, adding “In such a case, the effect of the restrictions would be the opposite — the counterbalance to the Russian propaganda would actually decrease.”

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