Rimvydas Valatka leaves university after dispute with dean

Journalist and longtime lecturer Rimvydas Valatka has left Vytautas Magnus University, citing disagreements with the dean of its Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, LRT reported. Valatka said he chose to leave and did not renew his contract.

Valatka began teaching at the university 10 years ago and taught four courses on media and public relations. He said he had considered leaving earlier but stayed until his students had completed their courses.

He said the dispute with dean Mindaugas Jurkynas concerned Valatka’s social media posts criticising Jurkynas’s role as chair of the LRT Council during debates and protests over the public broadcaster’s political independence.

Valatka criticised the council after it asked protesting journalists to abandon a protest gesture: a symbolic minute of silence on air. In one post, he compared Jurkynas with figures in authoritarian states and called him an “intellectual degenerate.” Valatka said he did not know which post prompted Jurkynas to complain to the university’s ethics commission.

Valatka said the commission’s decision was favourable to Jurkynas, but he did not know whether the university rector had approved it. He said he no longer had access to his university email after leaving.

Valatka said the commission’s decision was not what prompted his departure. He described Jurkynas’s actions on the LRT Council as harmful to media freedom and said he found it difficult to train journalists in a faculty led by someone he considers an enemy of journalists. He also alleged that Jurkynas serves politicians who pressure the media.

The university told LRT that the ethics commission’s proceedings and decisions are confidential under its rules. It did not disclose what ethical principles Valatka was alleged to have breached. The university said it remained open to working with him in other ways, including at events and special seminars.

Tags: Lithuania, media freedom, education