The CEC working group, which conducted the investigation since May, found that almost 12,000 The publication “Viso, Visvaldai” prepared by “Laisvės TV”, which was able to untie EUR, was not only directed once morest the mayor of Kaunas, Visvaldas Matijošaitis, who was seeking re-election, but also promoted the mayoral candidates of six parties.
The CEC working group, which started the investigation based on the complaint of Kaunas Mayor V. Matijošaitis in May, proposes to recognize the aforementioned publication as a hidden political advertisement and an illegal non-monetary donation by a legal entity to the candidates, but still did not see a gross violation.
The working group recognized that the publication “Viso, Visvaldai?” stands out from the entire campaign in that it not only criticizes V. Matijošaitis, but also promotes his opponents – the lists of party candidates and six of the eleven mayoral candidates who participated in the elections. The publication contained photos of V. Matijošaitis’ opponents along with party logos, quotes and the like.
As a result, according to the working group, 14 thousand the publication distributed in circulation must be evaluated as a non-monetary prohibited donation of a legal entity to the candidates of the Freedom, Lithuanian Greens, Lithuanian Social Democratic parties, the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, the Liberal Movement and the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats.
The conclusion indicates that the political advertisement published in the publication was distributed in the interests of the above-mentioned party candidates for mayor of Kaunas, Mantas Bertulis, Ieva Budraitė, Darius Razmislevičius, Nijolė Putrienė, Vytautas Juozapaitis and Aurelijas Veryga.
The working group divides the costs of preparation and distribution of the publication into six parts and proposes to state that for each of the aforementioned candidates, “Laisvės TV” provided them with a non-monetary amount of 1.9 thousand. EUR donation, and to oblige political campaign participants, parties that put forward candidates, to pay the determined value of political advertising to the state budget.
The working group notes that not all candidates for mayor of Kaunas received an offer to provide information to the “Laisvės TV” publication, and not all of the candidates’ information was published in it.
“This means that “Laisvės TV” has selectively chosen candidates for mayor of Kaunas, whose information should be published in the publication “Viso, Visvaldai?”, and this confirms an exclusive approach to these candidates and the political organizations they represent,” the conclusion says.
Regarding other elements of the “Viso, Visvaldai?” campaign, such as discussions, broadcasts, Facebook posts, media publications regarding this campaign, the CEC working group did not find any violations.
Regarding the Facebook posts, the working group states that there is no data that A. Tapinas or “Laisvės TV” acted at the behest of politicians or parties when publishing the posts directed once morest V. Matijošaitis, so it can be concluded that those posts do not meet the criteria of political advertising and are “mobilization of followers to start the planned campaign “Viso, Visvaldai?”
In his answers to the CEC, A. Tapinas claimed that neither he nor “Laisvės TV” ran advertising campaigns once morest V. Matijošaitis, they only prepared a “discussion publication”, and no political party supported the project. According to him, the discussions during the “Viso, Visvaldai?” campaign were organized by Kaunas city communities, and he only performed the functions of an unpaid moderator.
“Neither I nor Laisvės TV ran any advertising campaign once morest the candidate for Kaunas mayor V. Matijošaitis. In all our discussion publications and shows, all candidates for Kaunas mayors were given equal opportunities to express their positions, taking into account the provisions of the Election Code”, A. Tapinas says in response to the CEC.
In response to the request to submit the statement of the bank account published on Facebook “for publishing, advertising and other issues of the discussion campaign”, A. Tapinas stated that he would not do so, because disclosing the data of natural persons would violate GDPR requirements.
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2024-07-07 12:25:08
