ELTA is a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

based in the Lithuanian capital

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. In a day, it receives about 5,000 news articles and produces about 300 articles in Lithuanian, Russian, and English. ELTA cooperates with foreign news agencies such as

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Polish Press Agency and others.

History

Interwar

ELTA was founded in March 1920 in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, the temporary capital of Lithuania, by Juozas Eretas, the first director of the agency, a literature professor, publicist, and public figure of Swiss descent who sought to make the ELTA news wire as efficient and reliable as a "'' Swiss watch''". ELTA was founded based on Lithuanian press bureaus that were established in Switzerland, Denmark, France, Sweden, Germany during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The agency was owned by the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. Between 1920 and 1940, ELTA cooperated closely with the most prominent foreign agencies – its five

teleprinter A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point and point- ...

s used to send news from

(UK), DNB (Germany),

Havas Havas NV () is a French multinational corporation, multinational advertising agency, advertising and public relations company, with its registered office and head office in Puteaux, France. Havas operates in more than 100 countries. The group ...

(France), Stefani (Italy) and TASS (Soviet Union). ELTA also employed correspondents in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Soviet occupation

When Soviet troops occupied Lithuania in 1940, ELTA was incorporated into TASS and relayed news from Moscow. Lithuanians who escaped the Soviet occupation established a free ELTA in Germany. The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK) published various ELTA bulletins in Lithuanian, German, Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Post-1990

When Lithuania restored independence in 1990, ELTA also re-established its independence from TASS and its direct contacts with the leading global agencies. In 1996, ELTA was partially sold by the

government of Lithuania The Government of Lithuania, officially the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (GRL), is the Cabinet (government), cabinet of and exercising executive power in Lithuania. Among other responsibilities, it executes laws and resolutions of the ...

(the law required the government to retain at least 35% of the shares). In 2003, MG Baltic owned 50.86% and Achema Group owned 6.75% of the shares. Companies controlled by , publisher of the daily '' Respublika'', acquired about 60% of ELTA in 2005. In 2006, , publisher of the daily ''

Lietuvos aidas ''Lietuvos aidas'' (literally: ''Echo of Lithuania'') is a daily newspaper in Lithuania. It was established on September 6, 1917, by Antanas Smetona, and became the semi-official voice of the newly formed Lithuanian government. When the government ...

'', acquired 39.51% of shares that were owned by the government. In August 2017, Gitana Markovičienė announced plans to purchase the controlling stake in ELTA and became the new CEO. The deal for the purchase of 80% of the shares closed in February 2018. GM Media Invest, owned by Markovičienė, acquired the remaining 20% of shares in January 2020 to become the sole owner of ELTA. In 2022, Delfi news portals owned by the Estonian AS Ekspress Grupp bought all ELTA shares.

Directors

ELTA directors were:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Eastern Bloc mass media News agencies based in Lithuania 1920 establishments in Lithuania Mass media in Vilnius Mass media companies established in 1920