‘Which generals does the soldier of justice obey?’

Judge Gediminas Viederis has sparked controversy in Lithuania by ordering a journalist from the Baltic News Service (BNS) to reveal his sources following the publication an internal Lithuanian secret service document.

The journalist, whose name the daily did not reveal, had reported that Russia was preparing to launch a campaign to discredit Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė in the run-up to the Eastern Partnership summit, which is to be held in Vilnius at the end of November, explains Lietuvos rytas. These revelations have been confirmed by the head of state.

“Those who leaked the information aimed to achieve the goal that would have resulted if the news had been made public [by the government]: protection of the president from unpleasant consequences,” notes daily, which remarks that the “ensuing agitation has been more prejudicial to the state” than the content of the document itself. For Lietuvos rytas, the main reason for the demand by the judge - dubbed a "soldier of justice" by the newspaper, is to ensure that whatever “secret service agents say or write, remains classified.”