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Description
Together with regional partners, investigative journalism center Siena.lt will develop a project devoted to increasing transparency in Sirvintos region, where local government has developed traits of autocracy and displays attempts to limit freedom of information and freedom of speech. The project will improve the knowledge and skills of local journalists based in Sirvintos. Together with investigative reporters from Vilnius, regional journalists will investigate public spending and connections of decision makers in Sirvintos, in order to identify cases of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. The work will combine a set of traditional investigative journalism techniques and innovative IT-based solutions and tools. The project will increase the level of transparency and accountability in Sirvintos. It will also attract the public attention to the state of democracy and freedom of expression not only in Sirvintos, but across Lithuania.
Summary of project results
The project aimed at revealing and exposing corruption, nepotism and other harmful practices in a municipality with visible signs of autocracy and/or domination of certain interest groups in political decision-making and managing public funds.
The project implemented several activities, targeted at increasing transparency and defending right to information and free speech in Sirvintos, a Lithuanian region heavily dominated by a narrow group of political power players. The project included three online trainings for local independent journalists and activists. The trainees were presented with tools and techniques of investigative reporting. In the next stage of the project, two investigations were conducted, exposing the most influential politicians of the region: Zivile Pinskuviene, the mayor, and her spouse Jonas Pinskus, elected to the Lithuanian parliament in the Sirvintos constituency. The investigations revealed that some of the mayor’s wealth is of unknown origin, with several indications of money laundering risks, while her spouse has been concealing ties to people affiliated with organized crime, cigarette smuggling and money laundering.
During the three online trainings for local independent journalists and activists the trainees'' their professional skills were significantly improved. The two journalist investigations that were conducted exposed the most influential politicians of the region: Zivile Pinskuviene, the mayor, and her spouse Jonas Pinskus, elected to the Lithuanian parliament in the Sirvintos constituency, and reveled that some of the mayor’s wealth is of unknown origin, with several indications of money laundering risks, while her spouse has been concealing ties to people affiliated with organized crime, cigarette smuggling and money laundering. The investigations reached at least 60,000 people. The public, both locally in Sirvintos and on the national level, was well informed about the problematics of freedom of speech in Sirvintos, and the transparency of local government was increased, although the politicians themselves assaulted the journalists and called them a “well organized gang” of “criminal journalism”.