VILNIUS — Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė proposed an amendment to a law on Wednesday that would ban bank subsidiaries from owning any media companies in whole or in part.

The law will amend a loophole in an already existing law that stops banks, but not their subsidiaries, from owning media companies.

Linas Balsys, spokesperson for the president, said that the bill is necessary to close the “gap in the law.”

“It is just a routine amendment which is really a necessary to complete a ban that was already there,” Balsys said. “The banks were always banned from owning the media. It is just enlarging a little bit the scope o fthe definition of what is a bank.”

Currently, Snoras Bank owns a 34 percent stake in Lietuvos Rytas, the large Vilnius-based media company that has a television station and a newspaper. Political parties are also barred from buying into media companies.

Balsys said he was not aware of Snoras’ stake and denied any targeting of any specific media companies.

“There is no direct target at any newspaper that could or could not be touched by this law,” he said.

Representatives for Lietuvos Rytas declined to comment, and Snoras Bankas did not respond to request for comment from Baltic Reports.

The amendment is currently in the Seimas and is expected to be voted on shortly.