Competition Investigations

Lithuania – where ‘biodiversity funding’ is cutting down trees

Authors: Daiva Repečkaitė, Vaida Pilibaitytė and Elena Reimerytė. The final investigation has been published on euobserver.com as well as on Lithuanian outlet of responsible journalism Nara.lt. The findings of the investigation also were shared on two separate editions on the national broadcaster LRT one of which is the episode of documentary show Spalvos.

Re-closure of the municipal waste disposal site in Veterná Poruba is not in sight

Authors: Mgr. Tibor Šuľa (liptovmagazin.eu), PhDr. Miroslav Volček (freelance journalist), Mgr. Miroslava Mudičková (freelance journalist) The final investigation has been published on liptovmagazin.eu. Other findings, including overview of the media coverage of the topic and various relevant documents have been published on a dedicated website.

2 million euros for the construction of a new sports hall and conflict with activists

The full title of this investigation is “The handball club in Dunajská Streda received 2 million euros for the construction of a new sports hall. However, the city came into conflict with activists”. Authors: Marco Németh (freelance journalist), Adam Zavřel (europskenoviny.sk, TV JOJ) The final investigation has been published on europskenoviny.sk.

CCTV systems in public space and human rights: Where are you going, Slovakia?

Authors: Tereza Vahančíková, Lucia Gavenčiaková (freelance journalists) This investigation has been published on europskenoviny.sk.

Impact of the use of synthetic fertilizers on groundwater

Authors: Július Buday (TV Bratislava), Michal Frank (the Korzár daily) Report on YouTube (TV Bratislava) Report on Korzar.sk, it was also pulished in the print version of the Korzár daily Podcast about the investigation and team-work

Contamination of the Ružín water reservoir with heavy metals

Authors: Lenka Haniková (Korzár daily), Radoslav Marek (freelance journalist) The series of 4 reports has been published on online portal of the Korzár daily: Report 1 Report 2 Report 3 Report 4

April 14 2016 | Daiva Repečkaitė

Healing mental disorders with concrete

Lithuania is committed to reducing the number of adults with disabilities placed in social care by 40% before 2020, and the number of children in such arrangements should decrease by 60%. Yet data show that structural investment from the European Union, vital for this process, got channeled into creating slightly more comfortable environments rather than alternative arrangements.

August 13 2015

Journalistic experiment: what it means to be a Muslim in Lithuania

Two female journalists, when making a research, tried to live as Muslims and to have a chance to feel on their own what experience women covering their faces by veils in Lithuania.

November 20 2014 | Yiannis Sidiropoulos

Detention centers in Greece

Greece, as the east gate of Europe for the immigration flows of Middle East is facing the issue of irregular immigration for many years.

November 18 2014

Change the migration story

The public and political debate around migration in most European countries has taken on the tone of mass hysteria. The rancid rhetoric of immigrants who are invading our countries.

As well as threatening our national security, capsizing our economy and welfare system and imposing their barbaric cultural and religious habits on our civilized society is echoing throughout Europe, supported by the same mix of unfounded arguments, cheap prejudices and irrational fear of the unknown.

January 19 2014

STOP: Roma and Arabs Not Permitted

‘NO, it’s a private evening.’ ‘NO, the club’s full.’ ‘NO, your dress code is not right.’ Or just a simple ‘NO’. Why? ‘No entrance for gipsies and Arabs – with such words foreigners are greeted at the doors of night clubs and bars in Vilnius. The journalistic experiment shows that people of different ethnicities are not permitted to enter places of fun.

January 18 2014

Does the University of Latvia want students with physical disabilities?

The University of Latvia (LU) with 16 100 students is the largest higher education institution in the Baltic States. However, the management of the university can’t tell how many students with disabilities are seeking education at their institutions. The people who are responsible think that there might be “two or three” such students. But nobody knows for sure. This shows a common attitude of the LU towards its students with disabilities. Or, more precisely, no attitude at all.

January 16 2014

Do Lithuanian children in homosexual families have rights?

I’ve heard my mother talking to the lawyer that if my other mother died, I’d have to leave my room and go to an orphanage, to the other family or go back to my dad who I’m not even talking to.’ These are not fantasies, but a real situation revealing how unsafe a child growing in a homosexual family is.

January 16 2014

Domestic Violence: Silent women and a Gummy Law

Some think that the conception of “violence in families” or the so-called “domestic violence” should not be used at all, because family is the ultimate good in itself. This is one of the reasons why it took 6 years to pass the Law Against Violence in the Immediate Environment in Lithuania.

May 17 2013

Inside Large Institutions: Forced Contraceptives and Abortions

My boyfriend and I are together for two years, we’ve moved in one room.We’d like to have a baby…’ says Milda [name is changed by – authors]. A 34-year-old-woman lives in a small room at a large long stay institutions for people with mental disabilities. The biggest dream of her is to have a family – a dream that is not meant to come true.