22. An applicant may not submit more than one application per programme in a given year, except in cases where the producer and/or disseminator of public information owns several different media and/or the application is submitted by an independent developer. The applicant must implement the project only in the public media organization(s) it owns and manages.
**What are the exceptions in paragraph 22 of the Rules? Can a public information service operator and/or disseminator with a website and a newspaper submit more than one application to a single programme?**
Paragraph 22 of the Rules specifies two exceptional cases where an applicant may submit more than one application to the Fund, i.e., where (1) the applicant is a producer and/or disseminator of public information who manages more than one (different) public media organization or (2) the applicant is an independent producer (see also the answer to Question 2).
For example, if a producer and/or disseminator of public information owns only one public media service (VIP), they may submit only one application to the Fund for one programme. If a producer/disseminator owns more than one public media service (VIP), they may submit more than one application to the same programme, e.g., for project funding and for operational funding (for those programmes where operational funding is available). It is important to note that the data on all the public media services (VIPs) managed by the producer and/or disseminator of public information must have been submitted to the Public Information Producers and Disseminators Information System (VIRSIS) prior to the submission of an application to the Fund.
An independent producer may not, in accordance with the requirements of the Law on Public Information (see Article 2(30) of the Law on Public Information), be a participant, manager, or member of any other body of an audiovisual media service provider or radio broadcaster, or have an employment, service, or joint activity relationship with an audiovisual media service provider or radio broadcaster.
If an independent developer applies to the Fund for funding of a project (in accordance with paragraph 17.1 of the Rules), they must submit to the Fund, together with their application, a document confirming that the content of the project is committed to be disseminated by a specific public information service provider operating a specific public media service (VIP). In this case, the independent developer will be subject to the requirements/conditions not related to the VIP (see point 19.7 of the Rules) and the public service announcer of their choice will be subject to the requirements related to the VIP. In the present case, the conditions set out in Annexes 1 to 4 to the Rules regarding the minimum number of years of activity and the number of employees must be met by the applicant, i.e., the independent developer (see paragraphs 19.8 and 19.11 of the Rules).
Both the independent developer and the public information service provider committed to disseminating the content of their project must have submitted data on their activities (the latter including data on the VIP under management) to the Public Information Producers’ and Disseminators’ Information System (VIRSIS).
An independent developer will be able to submit several applications to the Fund under the conditions set out above and will not be rejected on the sole ground that the content of the different projects will be disseminated by the same public service broadcaster through the same media outlet (MSB) under its control. For further information on the application to the Fund by an independent developer, see the answer to Question 2.
Yes, before submitting an application to the Fund, the independent developer must have agreed with the public information service provider on the dissemination of the content of the project in the public information service (PSI) controlled by the PSI. The document submitted to the Fund with the application must be in plain written form and signed. This is necessary to assess the dissemination of the project’s content to the public. In addition, the VIP in which the content of the independent developer’s project will be disseminated must comply with the conditions set out in Annexes 1 to 4 to the Rules, and the data on the public information disseminator and the VIP operated by them must be provided in the Public Information Producers and Disseminators Information System (VIRSIS). For further information on the application to the Fund by an independent producer, see the answer to Question 2.
The annexes to the Media Support Fund’s Rules for the submission of projects for funding by the Media Support Fund set a condition for applicants—the number of editorial staff/the number of full-time editorial staff. The footnotes state that the editorial staff (for whom notification of the commencement of national social security has been submitted to the SSDFV) employed on the last day of the previous quarter are counted.
We explain that a post is a contractual unit that measures how much work a worker does or how long a person works. 1 post is equivalent to 8 hours of work per day, 40 hours per week. This is the contractual unit used to measure a person’s workload.
Part-time work is often referred to as part-time work, i.e., less than 40 hours per week. If you work 20 hours a week, this is half the working time standard. You can also work a quarter time or less. If the employer and employee agree, working hours can be set in a wide variety of ways, as there is no legal minimum number of working hours.
In view of the above, please note that the number of employees in the editorial staff may include employees (for whom a notification of the commencement of State social insurance has been submitted to the SSDFV) who worked on the last day of the previous quarter, regardless of the size of the post.
**Article 101(1) of the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania** provides that an employment contract must be concluded with the sole governing body of a legal person—a natural person working for remuneration, except for the heads of small partnerships and individual enterprises. Such a contract may also be concluded on a part-time basis.
**Article 7(4) of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Small Partnerships** provides that a member of a small partnership may enter into civil contracts with the small partnership for the provision of services to the small partnership and/or the performance of works for the small partnership, with the exception of contracts having the characteristics of employment relationships.
Since the special legal regime for small associations is that the member and the manager of the small association are not employed but have a civil service contract, in this case, the member or manager of the small association would be considered as an editorial employee/full-time editorial staff member.
**Article 101(1) of the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania** provides that an employment contract must be concluded with the sole governing body of a legal person—a natural person working for remuneration, except for the heads of small partnerships and individual enterprises. Such a contract may also be concluded on a part-time basis.
**Article 7(1) of the Law on Individual Enterprises of the Republic of Lithuania** stipulates that an individual enterprise shall have a single-person management body, i.e., the head of the individual enterprise. The owner of an individual enterprise is also the sole management body of the individual enterprise—the head of the enterprise—unless the regulations of the individual enterprise provide otherwise.
**Paragraph 3** provides that the owner of an individual enterprise may appoint another person as the manager of the individual enterprise if this is provided for in the regulations of the individual enterprise, and **Paragraph 4** provides that where the owner of an individual enterprise appoints another person as the manager of the individual enterprise, the manager of the individual enterprise shall be subject to a contract of employment or a civil contract.
In light of the above, we clarify that the owner of a sole proprietorship who is the sole management body of the sole proprietorship—the company’s manager—would be considered an editorial employee/full-time editorial employee. Similarly, in this case, the manager of a sole proprietorship with whom the sole proprietorship has entered into a civil rather than an employment contract would be considered to be an editorial employee/full-time editorial employee.
Two parts of the funding conditions of the Cultural Media and Cultural Periodicals Programme are dedicated to the funding of cultural periodicals (content projects and activities), due to the difficult situation of the publishers of these publications. This has been addressed by the adoption of amendments to the Law on Public Information. An applicant meeting the requirements of the Rules, i.e., the publisher of a cultural periodical, has the choice of applying for (1) a content project, (2) an activity, or (3) both a content project and an activity in these parts of the programme (see commentary to point 22 of the Rules on the possibility of submitting more than one application in a programme). For these sub-programmes, competitions are restricted to publishers of cultural periodicals.
According to the Law on Public Information, a cultural periodical can be published in both print and electronic form. Therefore, the requirements for the print run (more than 500 copies for project funding and more than 750 copies for operational funding) in the conditions for funding cultural periodicals apply only to a printed cultural periodical, while the requirements for the average audience of a website (more than 3,000 unique visitors in the case of project funding and more than 5,000 unique visitors in the case of operational funding) only apply to a website publishing an e-publication of a cultural periodical.
These conditions are not complementary. There is no requirement that the website of the physically printed cultural periodical or any other website that will be used to disseminate the content project in accordance with the requirements set out in point 87 of the Rules must meet the minimum number of visitors specified in the conditions of funding. Conversely, the Rules do not require that the e-cultural periodical distributed on a website (or by other electronic means) be additionally printed in the number of copies specified in the funding conditions.
The data of both the printed and the e-distributed cultural periodical must be submitted to the Public Information Producers and Disseminators Information System (VIRSIS). The ISSN of the e-distributed cultural periodical must not be the same as that of the printed cultural periodical. For more information on ISSNs, see the website of the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library.
**Article 101(1) of the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania** provides that an employment contract must be concluded with the sole governing body of a legal person—a natural person working for remuneration, except for the heads of small partnerships and individual enterprises. Such a contract may also be concluded on a part-time basis.
**Article 7(4) of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Small Partnerships** provides that a member of a small partnership may enter into civil contracts with the small partnership for the provision of services to the small partnership and/or the performance of works for the small partnership, with the exception of contracts having the characteristics of employment relationships.
Since the special legal regime for small associations is that the member and the manager of the small association are not employed but have a civil service contract, in this case, the member or manager of the small association would be considered as an editorial employee/full-time editorial staff member.
A distinction should be made between a website and an e-cultural periodical. Therefore, an applicant operating a website covering cultural issues can only apply for the general (open) part of the programme under the conditions for funding cultural projects in the media.
However, if the applicant also distributes an e-cultural periodical on the website in question, they may also apply for this publication under the part of the programme dedicated to the funding of cultural periodicals (projects or activities). It should be noted that the e-cultural periodical must have an ISSN, which must not be the same as a cultural periodical published in printed form.
When you submit your application on the online platform of the Media Support Fund (hereinafter “the Fund”), you must also provide your Consent to the Processing of Personal Data (hereinafter “the Consent”).
Consent to the processing of personal data is an important legal document that sets out the rules and conditions for how personal data will be collected, stored, and processed by the Fund.
The Media Support Fund’s Consent to Processing of Personal Data form provides information on the processing of data: what data is collected, how it will be used and to whom it will be transferred, how long it will be stored, and the right to withdraw consent.
In the case of an application submitted by a legal person, ONLY the head of the legal person (the applicant) shall indicate their name in the consent and sign the consent.
This consent form is already filled in (no further completion or editing is required), so please read the information in the consent form carefully, fill in ONLY the date, location, your name and surname, and sign it electronically or with a simple signature.
**When applying:**
1. Download the Personal Data Processing Consent Form to your computer;
2. Please enter ONLY the date, place, your name, and surname (in the case of a legal entity, the name of the person submitting the application);
3. Sign the form with an electronic or plain signature;
4. Upload the signed form back to the platform.