An Investigation Has Been Launched in Lithuania Due to Justification of Soviet Crimes on YouTube 0 10

An investigation has been launched in Lithuania due to justification of Soviet crimes on YouTube. VILNIUS, April 9 (BNS) - The Prosecutor General's Office of Lithuania has initiated a pre-trial investigation in connection with a publication on YouTube, the author of which, while discussing exiles, possibly publicly justified the aggression of the USSR against Lithuania.

On Thursday, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that the Department of Criminal Prosecution began the investigation after reviewing a complaint from the Journalistic Ethics Inspectorate.

The organization and management of the investigation have been entrusted to prosecutors of the Klaipeda District Prosecutor's Office.

The Journalistic Ethics Inspector conducted a review of the video "Response to the Question About Exiles" on YouTube on his own initiative and found that it disseminates inaccurate and distorting historical facts about Lithuanian exiles and partisan resistance.

The inspector's report notes that the video employs disinformation methods - selective presentation of facts, misleading statistics, victim blaming, emotional manipulation, and conspiracy theories - with the aim of justifying Stalinist repressions and forming narratives of historical revisionism that equate Lithuanian partisans and exiles with soldiers of Nazi Germany and collaborators.

It has been established that the author of the video claims that exiles are not victims but accomplices of the Nazis, therefore deportations were not a crime but a lawful punishment. Partisans fighting against Soviet power are labeled as criminals and collaborators who killed civilians and looted villages.

The author of the video considers the NKVD repressions to be a restoration of justice and order, as well as a fight against crime.

The video also claims that the true history is concealed and falsified by the state and historians for the benefit of the United States.

Since such information violates the provisions of the Law on Informing the Public, which prohibits the dissemination of disinformation, a decision has been made to issue a warning to the account owner, to contact YouTube with a request to remove the content, and to refer the matter to the Prosecutor General's Office in connection with a possible crime.

Public approval, denial, or gross minimization of international crimes, as well as crimes of the USSR or Nazi Germany, may result in punishment in the form of community service, a fine, restriction of freedom, arrest, or imprisonment for up to two years.