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“Closed-door meetings can be held in exceptional cases, in the presence of confidential information, trade secrets or other cases provided by law, when certain information cannot be disclosed.
During the meeting and demanding that the broadcast be turned off, the chairman of the committee, TV Raskevičius, gave no reason as to who needed it.
The activities of the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center are important for the whole society, special investigations of exceptional value for our history are carried out there, so it is abnormal when the center is discussed behind closed doors, hidden from the public and without giving reasons. Therefore, I asked the ethics guards to evaluate such behavior when people’s right to know is restricted, the requirements of the Statute are ignored and the opening of the Seimas to the public is reduced, and I also wrote to my colleague TV Raskevičius to publish the record: ”Says A. Širinskienė, member of the Seimas.
According to the member of the Seimas, this is not the first time in the Seimas that the rulers fear publicity and the diversity of opinions: Artūras Žukauskas, a representative of the Freedom Party, president of the Education Committee refused to invite the dissidents, TV Raskevičius, Chairman of the HRC, holds meetings behind closed doors.
“Such actions, when the Seimas closes, they ignore the diversity of opinions, they fear a different approach, they are a danger to democracy. It is difficult to understand what happened to the liberals: after talking about freedom before the elections, when they entered the Seimas, they gradually immersed themselves in what has the characteristics of a dictatorship, ”says Seimas member A. Širinskienė.
The meetings of the Seimas committees, the commissions, the Seimas Board and the Conference of Elders were opened in the Seimas of the period 2016-2020; they were broadcast on the Internet for the first time so that everyone could see the legislative process. Seimas member A. Širinskienė points out that openness and transparency, availability of data are the principles that were followed when publishing all the work of the Seimas, not just the plenary sessions of the Seimas, as was the case until 2017.
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