I sometimes get comments both to this blog and the Lithuanian one, saying that the statements in one or another blog entry are "not objective", "biased", etc. Hence today I wanted to share some basic knowledge about categories in opinion journalism. I hope that you'll excuse me for only refering to Wikipedia, but these things are encyclopaedially basic 
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I can't help but come back to the topic of misrepresentations of the debate about the Nazi and Soviet crimes. The Minister of Justice Remigijus Šimašius, previously part of the neo-liberal mouthpiece, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, wrote an entry in his blog about the accusations against Lithuanians for massively collaborating with the Nazis during WWII. The world reaction was translated back to Lithuanians in the same manner as always...
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Sad to see it, but today Delfi quotes the president of Israel, saying that the crimes of the Nazis and the Soviets are incomparable, and adds this illustration.
The message is obvious, right? The information, taken from the BNS news agency (there is a statement underneath that the information from the news agency cannot be quoted or reproduced without a written permission, so I don't know if it's legal for me to translate it here), contains a quote from Shimon Peres. Does anyone have an English version of his speech? Google search provided no results. According to the author of this news item, Peres claims that Soviets and Nazis are incomparable because the latter killed more people. Is it really what he said? If so, it's a rather lame argument, but I suspect that this is a skewed translation. The quote of Peres starts with 'However', and it's not mentioned, what was before 'however'. This word usually connects opposing ideas, so logically he must have acknowledged the crimes of the Soviets, and then added 'However, they are incomparable to those of the Nazis..." But the preceding statement is, of course, beyond the news item.
Related post here. Illustrations are tools to arouse emotions and create the image of communist threat/conspiracy.
I'm really worried how the way certain news are presented in the most popular news portal Delfi fuels tensions in the society and perpetuates harmful stereotypes. Unfortunately, it seems that some journalists of the portal consciously exploit the emotional undertones of the messages they spread, in search for scandals and subsequent profit.
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It's unbelievable! I still can't recover from the shock!
The notorious nationalist daily "Respublika" had some smear campaign about the EU gender education policy. A reaction of the editor of the Catholic internet portal provoked the editor of "Respublica" to spill a bucket of virtual mud on him - I have already written about it in the blog. However, the toothless Journalist ethic inspection did nothing against Tomkus, the editor of Respublika, and he feels like he can do as he pleases. Recently a group of intellectuals announced a public petition calling for a full boycott of "Respublika" because of its disgusting defamation (a few years earlier "Respublika" received international attention for anti-semitic cartoons). I was among those who signed the petition. What Tomkus did to the petition was simply copying the list of names, adding himself and publishing it on the more tabloid sister-newspaper of "Respublika" under his own text, i.e. claiming that these are the people who have signed against "homosexual propaganda". So, my name is under it, along with the names of many leading intellectuals (it made me reflect on who owns the right to their own name in the virtual space, as it's very easy to copy a name and claim that the person actually signed).
I'm pretty sure that journalist and law enforcement institutions will be blind to this again! They would arrest teenage website commenters, but allow large-scale fascists to thrive, unfortunately.
I'm thinking of asking for political asylum in Japan
This blog is about urban transformations, the use of urban spaces, the policy of urban planning and reactions to it (well, sometimes about other topics as well). 'Wonderland' expresses, on one hand, my ironic view over what I see. So don't accept what you see here as objective information. What is stated in this blog is a position, yet I hope you'll find it interesting. On the other hand, with this blog I want to encourage everybody to never stop wondering, even if you are in your native city. So, let's start wa/ondering together! All photos posted here are taken by the blog author unless otherwise noted. If any problem with the posting of a particular photo is brought to my attention, I will review the problem and remove the photo if necessary. For those who write comments: I CENSOR THEM. Although I'm interested in hearing different opinions, even radical ones, I won't tolerate swearwords and hate speech on my blog. Comments must be written in one of the languages I understand (LT, EN, DE, SE, RU, JP, Hbr). Remember that this is a blog, so I'll regard such comments as "The views expressed here are subjective and biased" as meaningless.
Irregular Rhythm Asylum - young activists in Tokyo
Thrown Peas - my friend Jordan's blog on life in Spain
by the editor of 'Verslo klase' A.Katkevičius
Milda's blog on media and society
Dalia - photography
Ekoblogas - eco lifestyle
Daiva