Large-scale emigration from Lithuania has created a new paradigm of news stories within its media, reporter Egle Digryte tells CATHERINE REILLY
JOURNALISTS fish everywhere for stories – and Lithuanian reporters have certainly cast their nets wider since EU accession in 2004, when the floodgates opened.
The emergence of sizable Lithuanian populations in Ireland, Britain, Sweden and Spain, among other countries, has effectively created a novel news category back home: emigrants.
Delfi.lt – the most popular news website in Lithuania – has a dedicated section for emigrant-related news, although somewhat surprisingly it has no ‘emigrant correspondent’ per se. But emigrant news is ranked highly, according to Delfi journalist Egle Digryte.
“A couple of years ago we decided to make an emigrant news [category], it is in the second position after Lithuanian news, and that means that they are very important, actually,” she says.
Digryte has written a wide variety of emigrant-related pieces, and has journeyed to Ireland on a couple of occasions to report on emigrant issues – once with then prime minister Gediminas Kirkalas as he and colleagues attempted to woo Lithuanians home. Observing such a “direct” conversation between politicians and emigrants was “interesting”, recalls Digryte.
But one of her more startling journeys was to Scotland, where she reported on the murder of Jolanta Bledaite, a farm worker based in Scotland’s north-east who was killed and beheaded by a fellow Lithuanian. What struck Digryte in the aftermath was that locals in Angus seemed to partly blame themselves for what happened.
“There were some ceremonies after the murder and that was nice from the British side. Actually it was interesting for me because they were not blaming Lithuanians or Lithuania, but they said: ‘What did we do wrong that some immigrants are killing each other?’”
Some emigrant-based articles are more analytical, examining why exactly so many Lithuanians have decided to leave their native land in recent years, and why reluctance to return persists among a sizable number.
Digryte spoke to some London-based emigrants and discovered the following reasons. “For instance, sometimes it’s job opportunities, or the general mood in Lithuania... Some people say ‘I would come back in spite of the lower salary if somebody would suggest to me some good or interesting jobs.’”
The journalist has emigrant friends who tip her off about possible stories across Europe, while she and her colleagues at Delfi regularly monitor foreign media. No figures are available on Delfi’s overseas audience, but it would be significant.
“If you are abroad and say you work for Delfi, everyone says ‘Oh I read it everyday, it’s my home page’ and so on,” says Digryte.
Achievements of emigrants are regularly covered, and Digryte says Delfi has no particular line on emigration.
“We don’t need to write stuff that would call emigrants back. If somebody says ‘Every-thing’s bad in Lithuania,’ okay, we can put that. If somebody says ‘No, no, please come back’, we write that.”
As for Digryte herself, she would like to see Lithuania’s emigrants return someday, and believes that good job opportunities exist in Lithuania. And although she harbours a half-serious dream of temporarily swapping journalism with some physical job overseas – “on a strawberry field or whatever” – serious emigration wouldn’t be for her. Besides having a good job in Lithuania, it’s where all her ties are.
“I have my parents here, my brother, my friends, my neighbours, my colleagues. And if I go anywhere abroad – okay, I have friends in London, but if I go there I still would be alone somehow.”
