ELTA is a Lithuanian news agency based in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. 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, ITAR-TASS, DPA, PAP, Xinhua, and others.
History
ELTA was founded in March 1920 in Kaunas, 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. The agency was owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 1920 and 1940, ELTA cooperated closely with the most prominent foreign agencies – its five teleprinters used to send news from Reuters, DNB, Havas, Stefani and TASS. ELTA employed correspondents in Moscow and Berlin. When Soviet troopsoccupied 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 published various ELTA bulletins in Lithuanian, German, Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese. When Lithuania declared 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. 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, 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 inFebruary 2018. GM Media Invest, owned by Markovičienė, acquired the remaining 20% of shares in January 2020 to become the sole owner of ELTA.
