2024-07-31 09:16:53
E. Švenčionienė was full of praise for the leader and organizer of the bloody coup in Russia carried out by the Bolsheviks in November 1917, which was followed by a terrible terror that affected the destinies of many nations: “When celebrating V. Lenin’s birthday, we Soviet people gathered in taluks, it was a long-standing, meaningful tradition.” .
E. Švenčionienė did not spare more bright colors in relation to the leader of the revolutionaries, who was characterized by fierce repression – for example, she brought up his phrase about the necessity of education, which was just a slogan of the Bolsheviks, who drowned Russia and other countries in blood.
According to the current laws, it is forbidden to publicly display the symbols of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, as well as the images of the leaders of these totalitarian regimes, and administrative liability is provided for this.
Therefore, the Office of the Inspector of Ethics of Journalists reported E. Švenčionienė’s blind spot to the Kaunas County Chief Police Commissariat – according to her place of residence, as she is registered in this city.
E. Švenčionienė appealed the fine of 700 euros imposed by Kaunas AVPK to the court – allegedly she only provided information to the public about the importance of education.
However, the court rejected the argument about “educational purposes”.
The Vilnius District Court is currently examining another case regarding public approval of international crimes, in which charges have been brought against E. Švenčionienė, Kazimierus Juraičius and Valerijas Ivanovs. They all belonged to the now-defunct International Good Neighbor Forum.
According to Tautvilės Merkevičiūtė, assistant to the chairman of the Kaunas district court for media and public relations, the court rejected all the reasons of the applicant and determined that the administrative responsibility was applied to her reasonably.
“E. Švenčionienė’s actions, uploading and displaying on her Facebook account an image of Vladimir Lenin with a post, cannot be evaluated in any other way than as an image of communist symbolism, a symbol of the totalitarian regime, associated with the person who established this totalitarian regime, a member of the Communist Party of the USSR – the leader, the leader demonstration”, the court ruling states.
E. Švenčionienė’s explanations about “educational goals” should be evaluated only as her defensive position.
“As can be seen from the case data, E.Švenčionienė used the above-mentioned image of the leader of the Communist Party of the USSR with an inscription in public, uploading and displaying it on the social network Facebook administered by her, and the image of such a person with the corresponding inscription expressing pride in the history of a hostile state, communist ideas (traditions) ), the display can be compared to a deliberately performed public demonstration and clearly shows the applicant’s attitude towards the ideology of the communist party of the state hostile to Lithuania.
These circumstances are also proven by the factual circumstances established during the investigation, that the display of these symbols is not accidental, but on the contrary, is purposeful and intentional.
Therefore, the court had no doubts that the actions of E. Švenčionienė have a direct intention to act in order to promote communist ideas, to portray the founder of the totalitarian regime, to incite discord, to divide society due to the policy of the education system carried out in Lithuania, acting against those values that are recognized and cherished by the Republic of Lithuania, in this way encroaching on the established order of governance.
It should be noted that public information must be provided to the public in such a way that it becomes clear who and why used the corresponding symbol, objective historical knowledge is not distorted when providing information, etc.
Meanwhile, in this case under consideration, in such a factual situation – on the birthday of V.Lenin, specifically indicating this in the post next to the photo with the post, communist symbols – the image of the leader of the Communist Party of the USSR with the corresponding post praising V.Lenin, which obviously expresses favoritism to the communists of the USSR the party leader’s ideas, communist traditions, as well as disinformation, spreading false information, describing V.Lenin in an exclusively positive way, the demonstration not only does not give grounds for the conclusion about the educational purpose, but in its essence also denies the supposedly existing educational goals and shows an active desire to spread communist ideas to denigrate the policy implemented in Lithuania in the field of education, being proud of the ideas of the aforementioned leader of the Communist Party, who established the totalitarian regime.
For these reasons, the applicant’s explanation during the court session, that the emphasis is on education in the posted record, is not convincing and should be evaluated by the court as a defensive tactic in order to avoid administrative responsibility”, states the ruling of judge Vaida Baumilė.
The ruling rejecting E. Švenčionienė’s complaint can be appealed within 20 days.
2024-07-31 09:16:53