Baltic States – CIS, Legislation, Lithuania, Markets and Companies, Russia

The company was fined for defying its ban on retransmitting RTR Planeta and other versions of the Russian-language channel.

The Vilnius Regional Administrative Court ruled on Friday that the media watchdog was right in banning the rebroadcasting of the Russian TV channel as its programs did incite war and national hatred.

"The court also believes the commission was right in issuing the fine to Init for the violations. However, taking into account the violation's duration, the uncertainty related to its consequences and the fact that Init committed the violation for the first time, the court reduced the fine to 50,000 euros," Sigita Jacineviciene-Baltaduone, spokeswoman for the court, told.

The RTCL imposed a one-year suspension on RTR Planeta for distributing content inciting to war and hatred in February, 2018.

TV service providers had until Feb. 23 to stop RTR Planeta retransmissions in Lithuania. However, Init on Mar. 1 was still rebroadcasting Rossiya RTR, one of the versions of the channel.

The Law on the Provision of Information to the Public allows LRTK to impose a fine of up to 3%  of a rebroadcaster's total annual revenue or a fine of up to 100,000 euros if it is difficult or impossible to calculate its total revenue.