Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė has been the Director General of the Lithuanian Public Service Broadcaster LRT since 2018, winning a second five-year term last year. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the EBU.

In this exclusive interview with Yako Molhov, the head of LRT talks about the numerous challenges that the Lithuanian pubcaster is facing during her second term, ranging from financing, political independence, further development of the news and information offer, both locally and internationally, the new LRT building, as well as cooperation with fellow PSB services in the region, especially Ukraine's Suspilne.



Monika, you have been at the helm of Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT since 2018, winning a second term in 2023. What have been the main challenges for you and for LRT over the past five years, alongside the COVID pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the financial crisis?

One of the biggest challenges was the political pressure when, in 2018-2019, the ruling party in the Seimas, the Farmers and Greens Union, exerted political pressure, tried to radically change the management model of LRT, to turn it into a state broadcaster, like in Poland, and questioned the funding model of LRT. Fortunately, all these attempts failed, but that does not mean they will not happen again. We also faced enormous pressure from commercial media - seeing that LRT was doing increasingly well, they could not reconcile with it. They complained about the LRT funding model to the European Commission, and when it refused to start an investigation, they took it to court, and the case is currently ongoing.

Overall, the challenge was to reform LRT itself, to change the internal culture, to improve work processes and digital transformation, as well as to improve the quality of content, create synergy in news services, and move into the field of digital content.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges at the moment is the obligation to broadcast news continuously during an emergency situation, for example, at the start of the war. The national broadcaster has a special duty to inform the public in an emergency. Upon hearing sirens or receiving a message on their phone, people should turn on LRT television or LRT radio and listen to the announcement for recommendations. The war in Ukraine and the experiences of our colleagues there have raised many questions about how to realistically work in such a time - how and from where we should broadcast, what information the main state institutions would want us to disseminate. We have prepared business continuity plans for incidents like a disaster at the Astravyets nuclear power plant and other situations. However, war is a completely different circumstance. Therefore, we have prepared initial plans on how we would operate in the event of war, drawing on the experiences of our colleagues from Ukraine and Finland.


Under your management LRT has made significant progress in terms of its digital presence and investment in content and viewership results. What are your main accomplishments and what will you focus on during your second term?

Under my management LRT has undertaken a comprehensive reform and embarked on digital transformation. As a result, LRT’s newsrooms have been reformed and the web portal has been revamped, providing news services in five languages. The content of all LRT platforms has been integrated and many processes and content offerings have been digitalized. LRT has set up an investigative journalism unit and initiated media literacy and fact-checking projects together with its partners. In 2023, LRT joined the International Fact Checking Network.

In 2022, LRT renewed its visual identity to emphasize its position as a growing, diverse, open and modern public service broadcaster. LRT has also paid particular attention to ethical journalism standards. In 2023, LRT became the first public service media organization in the Baltic countries to be awarded the Reporters Without Borders Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) certificate for trustworthy journalism. LRT earned the highest score (100%) for meeting international JTI standards.

Over the past five years, LRT has undergone a positive organizational transformation: modern management principles have been introduced, with a particular focus on human resources management, many processes have been digitalized and made more transparent, operational risks have been identified and mitigated, project management has been improved and an ESG strategy has been developed and is being implemented.

LRT's achievements have been recognized both nationally and internationally. LRT was named the most popular media brand in Lithuania for the second time at the Baltic Brand Forum 2023.

Based on public surveys in 2022, LRT received the highest rating among seven Lithuanian media groups in 6 out of 7 assessment criteria, including objectivity, reliability, and education, etc. More than 70 per cent of the population evaluate LRT positively (Baltic Surveys, 2022).

The most important tasks for the second term are to implement the LRT strategy. We will further develop our VOD platform EPIKA. We will implement the Children's and Youth Strategy. We will involve this audience in creating content for them and nurture new talents. We have planned projects for all three platforms and news services to improve regional inclusivity – from cultural content to television shows and special projects in the web portal. We will initiate actions in Lithuania that unite people and promote pride in their state. We will better listen to the audience's needs and allocate our resources more accurately. We will put more effort into not only the content of the information but also its presentation: we will refresh news formats, prepare news for children and youth, and adapt or specially prepare news for individual social networks. We will implement the News Strategy: LRT will create high-quality journalism that reaches the audience – wherever they are. We will expand the network of correspondents and collaborators in the regions and abroad.

We will ensure deeper cultural content for the educated viewer and strive to engage a broader, untapped audience. We will aim to spread more cultural news and current affairs from the regions of Lithuania, Europe, and the world. We will ensure meaningful entertainment thinking outside the box: intellectual games, quizzes, humor, and reality show formats uniting various social groups in Lithuania are planned. We will expand the offering of radio drama content – series, documentaries, history popularization – and strengthen literature projects. We will strive to secure the rights to broadcast major cultural and sports events. We will make better use of content created by other platforms. We will complete the digitalization of LRT archives and move to more active use of archives in content, creating a digital education platform.

There will be greater orientation of radio content towards the digital space, creation of podcasts. We will introduce special LRT.lt applications for various platforms, televisions, and cars. We will review the organizational structure of LRT and adapt it to long-term goals. We will embody the values enshrined in the LRT strategy in the daily activities of LRT employees. We aim to build a new LRT building. We plan to prepare strategic guidelines for sustainable development and implement real changes in environmental, social, and governance areas. We will focus on the use of renewable electricity sources. We will implement the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.


Just recently you announced that LRT EPIKA - the free platform created specifically for the convenient and simple viewing of films and series will become the main 'cinema hall' of LRT. What is your strategy behind this step?

We follow trends and notice that the consumption of video content online is steadily increasing – especially films and series, the so-called slow content. One of the goals set in the new LRT strategy is to create meaningful leisure content, so we want to open LRT content to new viewing ways, offering the best national broadcaster content on a digital platform and quality entertainment in one place.

LRT EPIKA users will find special content exclusive to this platform – from award-winning films at festivals to unique content such as the Lithuanian cinema golden collection or series that have not yet been shown on television screens. We select high-quality content for all LRT channels every day, so we decided to gather everything in one place for convenient viewing. Everything is tailored for the Lithuanian audience, so users will be able to watch not only legal but also well-translated and dubbed content.


In March last year LRT announced its guidelines for 2023-2027. What are the main principles that LRT management and employees will abide by?

The four-direction strategy aims to understand and reach various societal groups, create high-quality content that aligns with the mission, reach the audience in convenient ways, and foster an efficient, innovative organization that quickly adapts to changes.

Among the goals set are ambitions to attract children and youth, consistently and systematically reflect every region of Lithuania, and understand and reach those audiences that LRT currently reaches insufficiently.

Content goals include continuing to be a leader in high-standard journalism, helping the audience acquire new knowledge and grow, and offering meaningful leisure content.

As people's habits change and more people use the internet, it was crucial to set the goal of reaching the audience in ways convenient for them. Therefore, among the goals are to make LRT.lt the main LRT platform, ensure the best user experiences across all LRT channels, and introduce audiences to LRT content on the digital platforms they use.

All this would not be possible without the goals identified in the fourth direction: fostering a value-based internal culture, increasing the creativity, collaboration, openness to change, and engagement of LRT employees. Also, continuing digital transformation, increasing technological and infrastructure innovation, and implementing sustainability principles in LRT activities.

LRT will base its activities on core values: openness to perspectives, dialogue, collaboration; innovation in journalism, creativity, technology, and management; independence and reliability.


Public broadcasters in CEE have been experiencing difficult times lately, i.e. the change in power in Slovakia and Poland; Suspilne left the United News marathon in Ukraine; in Czechia there have been discussions about the way of funding of CT; etc. What is the situation in Lithuania, does LRT have a good model in terms of funding and have there been any discussions about changing it?

In 2023 LRT was the first PSM in the region to receive the trusted media certificate from RSF's Journalism Trust Initiative. Our compliance with the Trusted Media criteria was rated at the highest level, including editorial independence and transparent and sustainable sources of funding.

On the other hand, RSF's latest World Press Freedom Index report highlighted the issue of the LRT board being selected by politicians.

In terms of its funding model, the LRT can serve as an example for other countries. The current model has been in place since 2015 and is provided for by law. According to the legislation, state budget allocations to LRT are automatically calculated as a fixed percentage of the state taxes collected in the year before last.

Allocations to LRT consist of 1% from personal income tax and 1.3% from excise duties. LRT is not allowed to broadcast commercial advertising.

The law also provides for a certain minimum threshold for LRT funding - the level of allocation to the LRT may not be lower than the level in 2019.

State allocations cannot be revised by the government every year. This funding model guarantees independence from political influence, economic lobbying and protects editorial independence. It also requires no administrative costs and is more acceptable to society because it does not impose direct costs.

It is precisely because the model guarantees independence, LRT has faced attempts to question or change its legitimacy.

In 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the current funding model was in line with the Constitution. According to the Court, this model ensures that LRT is not under political pressure because of its activities.

Such a public broadcaster funding model ensures LRT's independence not only from government institutions but also from advertising revenue and economic lobbying. Last year, all seven channels offered by LRT cost each Lithuanian resident 1.65 euros per month. This amount is one of the lowest in all of Europe. On average, a public broadcaster costs a European resident 3.70 euros per month, while in Denmark, for example, the amount reaches 7.65 euros.

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