The LR Law on Funding of Political Parties and Political Campaigns, and Control of Funding foresees, that political advertising and its sources of funding shall be marked and adequately separated from the rest of the disseminated information.

 

Following the provisions of the said law in March 2009 the Central Election Commission together with the Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania approved the Order of Marking of Political Advertising in Radio and Television Programmes.

 

The Order of Marking of Political Advertising in Radio and Television Programmes seeks to determine the necessary requirements for marking of political advertising in Radio and TV programmes. These requirements apply to all the broadcasters and are valid irrespective of whether the political campaign is announced or not.

 

According to the Order each announcement or a part of a programme dedicated to political advertising shall be indicated by acoustic means in Radio programmes and the crawling line in TV programmes and the sources of funding revealed.

 

In cases when programmes dedicated to political advertising are interrupted by other kind of advertising, news, musical breaks, etc., it has to be additionally informed that a political advertising was being broadcast before and sources of funding indicated again.

 

It has to be noted, that in television programmes during the election (referendum) campaign, which usually lasts for 30 days before the elections, all the announcements and parts of programme dedicated to the political (referendum) campaign, shall be marked by a notice “election campaign” or “referendum campaign”, while in radio programmes this shall be announced by acoustic means.

 

In addition, during the announcements or programmes, dedicated to the election (referendum) campaign a notice of no less than 2 seconds shall be shown, indicating, that the campaign is being paid from either a special account of an independent political campaign member or from the State budget, in case it is financed by the State.

 

In radio programmes the same shall be done by acoustic means.

 

The Central Election Commission controls how broadcasters keep to these requirements.