§ Article 17Conditions and Procedure of the Use of Mass Media

1. A right to use the media free of charge shall be extended to the group
representatives, President of the Republic, Prime Minister, ministers, parties, public organisations and citizens. The Central Electoral Committee having coordinated with the heads of the National Radio and Television of Lithuania, shall approve the regulations of preparing broadcasts intended for referendum agitation and the actual duration and time of the National Radio and Television of Lithuania broadcasts. It shall also distribute the broadcast time in such a way that the equal rights principles of the group’s and its opponents’ representatives would not be violated. The representatives of both the group and its opposition shall be accorded at least seven hours each of the public (national) radio and television time for holding debates between them.
2. The group shall propose the participants of the radio and television broadcasts, who support the initiative of calling a referendum and the resolution proposed therein for passage, and it shall inform the Central Electoral Committee of this. The opponents of the group shall be the representatives of the parties and public organisations and other persons, who do not approve of the initiative of calling a referendum and of the resolution proposed therein for passage. They shall inform the Central Electoral Committee of their desire to take part in the debates. The Central Electoral Committee, adhering to the order of priority set forth in paragraph three of this Article, shall comprise a list of the persons, who shall take part in the debates prepared for radio and television broadcasts.
3. The following order of priority shall be set for the persons in opposition to the group, who shall participate in the debates being prepared for radio and Television: The President of the Republic, Members of the Seimas (their order shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); The Prime Minister; the ministers (their order shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); the representatives of the parties whose candidates have been elected in multi-member electoral districts (their order of priority shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); the representatives of the parties whose candidates have been elected only in single-member electoral districts (their order of priority shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); representatives of the parties whose candidates had not been elected or did not take part in the Seimas elections, (their order of priority shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); the representatives of public organisations (their order of priority shall be determined through mutual agreement or by drawing lots); citizens (their order of priority shall be determined by drawing lots). if some persons, who only support the calling of a referendum and the resolution proposed therein for passage or only oppose these, shall take part in the radio and television debates, they shall hold discussions with the broadcast manager or the broadcast participants invited by him.
4. Only the amount of the special election accounts shall limit the agitation in commercial mass media.
5. The Central Electoral Committee shall resolve all the disputes arising of referendum agitation.