The heads of the Baltic and Ukrainian public broadcasters on Thursday signed a memorandum on cooperation in crisis situations, aimed at creating mutual support mechanisms for the Baltic and Ukrainian public broadcasters: Lithuania’s LRT, Latvijas Televizija (LTV) and Latvijas Radio in Latvia, Estonia’s ERR, and Ukraine’s Suspilne.

The agreement was signed during the European Broadcasting Union General Assembly in Cyprus.

The aim of the memorandum is to promote solidarity and unity among EBU members, to create a basis for public broadcasters’ cooperation, to provide mutual support and to ensure their continuous operations in times of crisis.

The agreement provides for the exchange of information and knowledge, and the signatories also undertake to assist any fellow public media organization that is unable to operate effectively in its home country due to an emergency situation, and to ensure the continuity of its operations.

The assistance may include exchanging technical resources and logistical support, and in the event of an emergency, the partners may provide access to their own communication channels and platforms to disseminate information to the public.
“In the face of the war in Ukraine, we also immediately started preparing for possible war scenarios. Learning from Ukraine’s experience, we have already ensured that if LRT’s infrastructure is destroyed or seized, LRT’s data will be safe and LRT will be able to continue broadcasting from data centers outside Lithuania,” said LRT GM Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė.

In her words, the future plans include ensuring the security of journalists and the LRT headquarters, setting up back-up correspondents’ stations, and planning the transmission of broadcasts from abroad.

The Baltic and Ukrainian public broadcasters also invited other EBU members to join the memorandum.