Behind the storefront of democracy: The case of media–politics relations in Lithuania

This paper examines the dynamics of informality in the politics-media nexus. The case study of Lithuanian politics-media relations is used to explore an “average” CEE democracy, where informal rules and practices compete with formal rules and laws in defining everyday interactions between political and media elites. The findings, primarily driven by original interview data, suggest that local mass media can be not only the objects, but also the active subjects of corrupt practices. In contrast, foreign owned private media tends to play a largely positive role in diluting informality and boosting the levels of professionalism. Disputing longitudinal media freedom trends delineated by Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders, the paper points to a more optimistic present for media freedom in Lithuania.