Type Daily newspaper Founded 1989 | Editor-in-chief Vitas Tomkus Language Lithuanian, Russian | |
Publisher Respublika Publications Group Political alignment Conservatism, soft euroskepticism, nationalism | ||
Respublika is a Lithuanian newspaper, published since September 16, 1989. Since January 7, 1991 it has published a Russian language edition (Республика).
In 1993 one of the founders, deputy editor in chief, and investigative journalist Vitas Lingys was shot to death in Vilnius after several death threats. Lingys wrote about organized crime and published several revealing stories about "Vilnius Brigade" crimes. Boris Dekanidze was found guilty for this crime and sentenced to death. He became the last person to be executed in July 1995 before the death sentence was abolished.
According to the TNS Gallup data, Respublika publication group is dominating in the country's press market. Newspaper by Respublika publication group (dailies Respublika (Lithuanian and Russian), Vakaro žinios, Šiaulių kraštas and Vakarų ekspresas) were read in average by 79.2% of all newspaper readers in early 2008.
Circulation of Lithuanian edition of Respublika reached 38,000 copies on Mondays–Thursdays and 55,000 copies on Fridays–Saturdays in 2005. In March 2007 26-year-old Ramunė Vaičiulytė became Respublika's first female editor-in-chief.