About
NARA is a space for responsible journalism in which fundamental aspects of society are examined.
NARA is produced by a collective of journalists and media professionals whose work relies on the principles of ethical journalism, research, and respect for our interviewees.
What started in 2015 in Lithuania as a two-person endeavor called Nanook soon grew into a community of more than ten individuals whose work earned multiple local and international awards. In 2017 this team also started the first professional Lithuanian podcast, called NYLA. All of the team's work is now continued under the name NARA.
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Berta TilmantėCo-Founder
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Indrė KiršaitėEditor and Journalist
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Karolis VyšniauskasEditor and Author
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Gabrielė JanilionytėProject Coordinator
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Martyna ŠulskutėPodcast Producer
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Denis VėjasPhotojournalist
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Julija StankevičiūtėJournalist and photographer
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Adomas ZubėAudio Journalist
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Melita VilkevičiūtėNewsletter Author
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Austėja PūraitėProject Coordinator and Author
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Audra SkuodaitėSocial Media Coordinator
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Karolis Pilypas LiutkevičiusPhotographer
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Kata BitowtSound Engineer
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Ula Rugevičiūtė RugytėIllustrator
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Emilija PociūtėJournalist
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Tomas ValkauskasJournalist
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Severina VenckutėPhotographer
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Daiva RepečkaitėJournalist
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Eglė MurauskaitėExpert in International Security
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Andrius JančiauskasPsychologist
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Martynas GailiusComposer
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Ieva BurneikytėComposer
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Gintarė ObelenėEditor
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Dangė VitkienėEditor
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Kerry KubiliusEditor
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Natalja KapočėEditor
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Mindaugas DrigotasJournalist and Videographer
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Ina ŠilinaRussian Podcast CoMeta Host and Producer
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Artūras MorozovasCo-Founder
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Contribee
The best way for journalism to remain independent is to be funded by the community itself. Become our patron by logging in through the secure „Contribee“ platform.
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Bank transfer
To contribute by recurring or one-time transfer, identify your transfer as “Support.” Our account name is VšĮ Dokumedija. Account No. LT914010051003356607
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1.2% income tax donation
When declaring your income, dedicate 1.2% of your income tax to NARA. Instructions on how to do this can be found here. The name of our organisation is VšĮ Dokumedija, registration code 303506867
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Advertising
We invite socially responsible businesses and organizations to purchase advertising space on our website and in our podcasts. Contact us at nara@nara.lt
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Partnership and sponsorship
For all your questions regarding sponsorships or partnerships, please contact us at nara@nara.lt
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NARA joins the PERSPECTIVES journalism initiative
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.
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Martyna Šulskutė's audio documentary "Language Shouldn't Be a Curse, It Should Be a Blessing" has been selected for the long program of the International Feature Conference
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.
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NARA on the pages of The Wall Street Journal
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.
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NARA contributor and illustrator Ula Rugevičiūtė Rugytė won the Illustration of the Year Award at the Book Awards organized by the Lithuanian Publishers Association
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.
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Message from our team: we have refused funding from the Press, Radio, and Television Support Fund
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.
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Denis Vėjas' publication won second place in the competition "Man and Environment"
NARA photojournalist Denis Vėjas with his publication "Ukraina: žmonių karas keturkojų gyvenimuose" ("Ukraine: the Human War in the Animal Lives") won second place in the environmental journalism contest "Man and Environment"!
The first prize went to Audrė Srėbalienė from the daily newspaper "Lietuvos rytas" and the third prize went to Tomas Janonis from portal "Delfi".
This is the 20th time that the "Man and Environment" competition is held. This year, 56 works were submitted. The competition is organized by the Lithuanian Union of Journalists and the Ministry of Environment.
More information about the competition can be found here.
NARA's awards
Prix Europa – A nomination in the Radio Documentary category for "Witnessing War Twice in Your 20s", Germany, 2022
LOGIN conference award for the Best Lithuanian Podcast – NYLA, 2019
Sheffield Adventure Film Festival – Best Spirit of Adventure Film Award for "Traces: Traversing the Past" mini series, 2019
New Media Writing Prize – What’s New in Publishing Award for "Traces: Traversing the Past", 2019
Prix Europa – A nomination in the Multimedia category for "Traces: Traversing the Past", Germany, 2018
National Press Photography Association Awards – second place in the Sports category for "Will to Win", USA, 2017
Lithuanian Press Photo awards – first place in the Multimedia category for "Will to Win", 2018 and
New Media Writing Prize – The Gorkana Journalism award for "Will to Win", 2017
About NARA online:
Doing journalism the (human) right way, Active Citizens Fund
How Nanook’s podcast helped Lithuanians make sense of the pandemic, Poynter
Hunting for Change in Baltic Journalism, Baltic Media Health Check
A journalist’s efforts to dismantle the Soviet Union’s legacy of media censorship in his country, AlJazeera’s Contrast VR
How Nanook used an audiovisual exhibition to promote its podcast among hard-to-reach Lithuanians, Engaged Journalism Accelerator, European Journalism Center
All content published on the NARA website belongs to VšĮ "Dokumedija". It is strictly forbidden to modify and/or distribute content published by NARA without prior approval. When such approval is granted, you must attribute NARA as the source, share a link that leads to the NARA website, and publish the content in accordance with the Copyright and Related Rights Act.
All questions and requests about sharing, publishing, or using our content should be addressed to: nara@nara.lt