Vytautas Antanas Matulevičius (born 31 July 1952) is a Lithuanian journalist, publicist, political figure and a former member of the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (), or simply the Seimas ( ; ), is the unicameralism, unicameral legislative body of the Lithuania, Republic of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of Government of Lithuania, govern ...

.Seimas website
/ref>

Biography

In 1970, he finished Vilnius 22nd High School and in 1975 he graduated from

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

Faculty of History where he gained the speciality of journalism. Later on, Matulevičius had postgraduate studies at the Department of Culture of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 1989, Matulevičius defended his dissertation called ''Contradictions in Public Life and Artistic Conflict'' (

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

: ). He was a correspondent and the secretary-in-chief of a newspaper ''The Truth of Communist Youth'' (Lithuanian: ''Komjaunimo tiesa''). Later he went to

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 ...

and became the secretary-in-chief of a newspaper ''Press of the Youth'' (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ''Molodiozhnaja pechat''). He also worked on a journal ''Friendship'' (Russian: ''Druzhba''). When Matulevičius returned to

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 ...

in 1989, he became the correspondent of a newspaper ''Truth'' (Russian: ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

''). However, in 1990, after Lithuanian daily newspaper ''The Republic'' (Lithuanian: ''Respublika'') publicly announced that ''Pravda'' advocates against the emancipation processes in Lithuania, Matulevičius left his position. After Lithuania declared its independence from the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1990, he debuted with a show ''The'' ''Mirror'' (Lithuanian: ''Veidrodis''). Following the Russian paratrooper's capture of Lithuanian television in 1991, Matulevičius participated in recreating television programs as a journalist and as editor-in-chief of public broadcasting. At the time, the building of

Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR (; , ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Litovskoy SSR'') was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the Lithuanian SSR, one of the republics constituting the Soviet Union. The Supreme Soviet was established ...

served as a residence where journalistic programs were broadcast. One of such was ''Shore'' (Lithuanian: ''Krantas''). Between 1992 and 1997 the latter program was broadcast by Lithuanian television and then 1997 until 2001 by Baltijos TV. In 2002, a new program ''The Vytautas Matulevičius Show'' (Lithuanian: ''Vytauto Matulevičiaus laida'') started on BTV channel. Starting from 2002 to 2006 he was the director of the private enterprise Krantas. Between 2004 and 2005 he worked in

Lietuvos rytas TV Lietuvos ryto TV is a Lithuanian entertainment channel founded on 12 October 2008. In 2022, all programs started to be broadcasting in the Lithuanian language, considering the fact that half of the Russian programs that were shown were only with su ...

. In 2020, he, along with journalists Rūta Janutienė and Valdas Vasiliauskas, created a Lithuanian alternative media channel OpTV (short for Oppositional Television) on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

aimed at providing "the freedom of speech, investigative journalism, opinions of experts and society, and debates about politics of

the Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

, and the

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

at large". This union was formed after all three lost their jobs working for mainstream media channels. According to the description of the channel, their mission is to create channel that is "free from political and informal centres of power".

Political career

From 2009 to 2012 Matulevičius worked as an assistant for the Lithuanian President

Rolandas Paksas Rolandas Paksas (; born 10 June 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who served as the sixth President of Lithuania from 2003 until his impeachment in April 2004. He previously served two terms as the Prime Minister of Lithuania in 1999 and again ...

. In 2012, he joined the political party Way of Courage and was elected to the Seimas until 2016. He also supported a Lithuanian judge and a former member of Seimas

Neringa Venckienė Neringa Venckienė (born 21 May 1971 in Kaunas) is a former Lithuanian judge and member of the Seimas of Lithuania. In 2008–2009, Venckienė's brother Drąsius Kedys accused three men of sexually molesting his four-year-old daughter. One of ...

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matulevicius, Vytautas Lithuanian journalists Lithuanian politicians 1952 births Living people