AWPL ‘Public media incite to nationalistic discords’

Today AWPL (Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania) released a special statement regarding increasing amount of information in Lithuanian media that incite to nationalistic discords in the country.

We present the whole statement:

‘The number of television programs and articles inciting to nationalistic discords in Lithuania had increased lately. We express our regret that at a forefront of this case is a public broadcaster, for example a TV program ‘Savaitė’ led by Nemira Pumprickaitė (LRT) and an article by Vilija Andrulevičiūtė ‘How to prevent Vilnius region from becoming a Lithuanian Crimea?’ on lrt.lt website („Ką daryti, kad Vilniaus kraštas netaptų Lietuvos Krymu?”).

The cause of this tendency is difficult to specify – it can be the upcoming election or today’s visit of Polish politicians with the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and the Vice-President of the party ‘Civic Platform’ (‘Platforma Obywatelska’) Cezary Grabarczyk at the forefront. Anyway, intended (as in these cases) inciting to nationalistic discords in Lithuania is unacceptable and it should receive a proper examination from institutions of legal protection.

Nemira Pumprickaitė’s program ‘Savaitė’ is often described by viewers as a program of lies and misinformation. It is no coincidence that activists like Antanas Valionis, former KGB reserve officer and others take part in it and proclaim their views.

Although the program of a public broadcaster should have only informative character, it is not so, and on the scale of distributed lies and misinformation Nemira Pumprickaitė’s program can be compared to Goebbels’s propaganda.

In response to dishonest programs and articles – N. Pumprickaitė i V. Andrulevičiūtė – we once again declare, that Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania (AWPL) and its politicians work honestly and with commitment and will continue to do so for the good of Lithuania and its citizens.

Popularity of AWPL is still increasing – the party is supported not only by members of nationalistic communities, but also by an increasing number of Lithuanian voters. The aim of provocative articles and programs that were mentioned is to divert the attention of citizens from current problems in our country, with the lack of social justice and corruption being the biggest of them.

AWPL is the only party in the Parliament that had never been involved in any corruption scandal, and as the only one from the ruling majority supports social justice with actions, not just words – it did not vote in favor of pay rise for MPs and other high government officials.

The popularity of Waldemar Tomaszewski’s party is also increasing – he has a real chance to get to the second round of presidential elections. And this could be the real cause for the increased demand for such provoking, slanderous TV programs and articles. Everything should have certain limits, that is why we ask institutions of legal protection to examine mentioned articles and TV programs inciting to nationalistic discords in Lithuania.’

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/awpl-publiczne-media-podzegaja-do-wasni-narodowosciowych/

Tłumaczenie by Anna Leśkiewicz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Anna Leśkiewicz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.