Lithuanian pubcaster names new CEO

Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT has named Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė as its new CEO.

Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė

Garbačiauskaitė-Budriené was appointed by the LRT Council for a five-year term from a field of 11 candidates. She replaces Audrius Siaurusevičius, who has headed the broadcaster for two consecutive terms and reportedly had wanted to continue in his role.

Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, a journalist, was editor-in-chief of Lithuania’s biggest news website DELFI between 2000-2017. Previously she worked as a reporter and columnist for a variety of Lithuanian media organisations and also worked as editor of the weekly youth programme on Vilnius radio.

Her priority at LRT will be to better integrate content across various platforms.

Last month public broadcasters organization the EBU expressed concern about increasing political pressure being placed on LRT after the Lithuanian Parliament established an ad hoc investigative commission to look at the management, financial and economic activities of the broadcaster. EBU Director General Noel Curran wrote to the speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Viktoras Pranckaitis, the Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and the President of the Republic Dalia Grybauskaitė to express concern about the pressure being placed on the broadcaster, calling for any appraisal of its operations to be carried out by a specialised professional body such its Supervisory Council or the national state audit board.