When? Friday, 20 February, 18:00
Where? Meno Avilys (Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius)

This event brings together journalism, academic research, and activism to reflect on the Lithuanian–Belarusian border crisis.

It features:
– Benjamin Nangle (KU Leuven) presenting his co-authored book The Construction of Hostility Towards Migrants.
– Julija Kekstaite (Ghent University / Sienos Grupė) presenting research from her PhD thesis Filling Gaps and Making Cracks: Humanitarian and Solidarity Practices with Illegalised Migrants in Lithuania’s Borderlands.
– Francesco Rufini and Indrė Kiršaitė (NARA) presenting their short video documentary Border Limits.

The event will conclude with a panel discussion and Q&A. It will be recorded and shared online.

Benjamin Nangle is a researcher at KU Leuven specialising in far-right propaganda and anti-migrant discourses in Europe, with extensive experience in humanitarian asylum seeker response and advocacy. During the 2021 Lithuanian–Belarusian border crisis, he volunteered with the Red Cross in migrant detention centres. Drawing on his co-authored book with Giedrė Blažytė, The Construction of Hostility Towards Migrants, this presentation examines the historical, political, propagandistic, and geopolitical forces that shaped Lithuania’s response to the crisis. From neo-Nazis to neoliberal think tanks, from fearmongering journalists to EU politicians, he explores how anti-migrant hostility was constructed and normalised in public discourse.

Julija Kekstaite is a researcher at the University of Ghent and a member of Sienos Grupė, involved in a humanitarian response to the 2021 border crisis. Her presentation draws on her PhD thesis, Filling Gaps and Making Cracks: Humanitarian and Solidarity Practices with Illegalised Migrants in Lithuania’s Borderlands. Focusing on the grassroots initiative Sienos Grupė, she examines how ordinary people mobilised to support migrants after 2021, when arrivals from Africa and the Middle East were met with intensified border controls and state violence. Based on her dual role as member and researcher, she explores how everyday acts of care, providing aid, documenting violence, and advocating for rights, both respond to and expose a border regime that renders some lives disposable. The talk considers what such activism reveals about contemporary border governance and how collective care can challenge dominant narratives and reimagine political responsibility and community.

The NARA short video documentary Border Limits by a journalist Indrė Kiršaitė and a filmmaker Francesco Rufini explores life in Katra, a small village in southern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. Once home to 130 residents, today only four Belarusian widows remain. They moved here decades ago after marrying local men, crossing a border that lay barely ten kilometers away. Now they witness how people from thousands of kilometers away try to enter Lithuania, and for some the journey ends in death.

The event is co-organised and co-funded by the DEMINE European Joint Doctorate network, supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks.

PERSPECTIVES is the new label for multi-perspective and constructive journalism.

Co-financed by the European Union, PERSPECTIVES brings together journalists from the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine. We collaborate in our international Newsroom to bring you content that matters across borders.

Editorial independence and accountability are of key importance in our work and two of the main principles included in our editorial guidelines that encompass our common vision and standards of ethical and high-quality journalism.

See selected work published under the PERSPECTIVES label here.

The annual EBU (European Broadcasting Union) radio documentary conference, the International Feature Conference, took place in Reykjavik on 21-24 May. 16 works were selected for its long program, amongst them the audio documentary "Language Shouldn't Be a Curse, It Should Be a Blessing" by NARA's author Martyna Šulskutė. It is a story from April 2022 about a teenage girl, Hivi, and her daily life in Pabradė, at the Foreigners' Registration Centre, translating conversations between Kurdish and English. The conference also featured excerpts from documentaries on Russia's war in Ukraine, made in different countries last year.

The essay "War Darkens a Second Winter in Lithuania", published on The Wall Street Journal's website and in the newspaper, was written by one of our journalists and editors Karolis Vyšniauskas. The photographs used in the publication were made by our photographers Berta Tilmantaitė and Denis Vėjas.

"I am slowly coming to a realization that the country I left before my studies no longer exists. Our society is in a limbo between war and peace, calm on the outside, burning on the inside", writes Karolis. We invite you to read the essay.

At the Book Awards, Ula was awarded for her illustrations that embody the visions of Oskaras Milašius in Jurga Vilė's book "Nukritę iš Mėnulio. Sapnas apie Oskarą Milašių ir kitus paukščius“ ("Fallen from the Moon. A dream about Oskaras Milašius and other birds") (publishing house "Aukso žuvys").

We are very happy and we are sending our best wishes to Ula in France!

You can find her illustrations for our publications here.

You can also buy them in the NARA shop.

In October 2022, our colleague, "Siena" journalist Šarūnas Černiauskas published information about the at that time non-disclosed links of the director of the Press, Radio, and Television Support Fund, Gintaras Songaila, with the party of Petras Gražulis, the "People and Justice Union (Centrists, Nationalists)". Šarūnas also drew attention to the annual funding provided by the Fund to the public institutions "Tėviškės alkas" and "Lietuvos aidas".

These organizations, as "Siena" found out, do not submit financial reports to the Centre of Registers and provide a platform for people spreading lies and hatred, such as Erika Švenčionienė, who has been suspected by the law-enforcement agencies of helping another country to act against Lithuania, or Antanas Kandrotas-Celofanas, who has been convicted of financial crimes and defamation.
When we found this out, we decided to end our project funded by the Fund and pay back the remaining amount - €3,700 in total. We gave the Fund the reason for canceling the project as "the Fund's inconsistent public position".

The Press, Radio, and Television Support Fund is Lithuania's main media support fund, partly funding major portals, regional radio stations, and cultural publications with taxpayers' money. We hope that transparency will be brought by the planned reform of the Fund - the Media Support Fund, which is being created on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture and is expected to replace the Press, Radio, and Television Support Fund in May. While we are waiting for it, the "Tėviškės alkas" and "Lietuvos aidas" have again received new funding for their activities. Change is needed now, not just in five months' time.

While we are still stuck in this situation, we invite you to support the Lithuanian media organizations whose work you value. This will help them and us secure funding and continue our work, which aligns with ethical media values.

We have elaborated on our decision on our Facebook page.