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.

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.

Berta Tilmantaitė traveled to Riga on November 11th to participate in the journalism conference "Trust and Truth. Journalism in the Time of Crisis" aimed at bringing journalists together to discuss the challenges of war and how to maintain the trust of the audience in turbulent times. Berta took part in the conference panel "Best in the Baltics and Beyond" and spoke about NARA's storytelling journey.