Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina and BIRN Regional have moved office in Sarajevo. The new address is Kosevo 14/1, 71000 Sarajevo, while the phone numbers remain the same. For contact details of all BIRN organisations please visit: http://www.birn.eu.com/en/1/260/77/
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network worked with forumZFD – the German Forum Civil Peace Service – to jointly respond to the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights’ call for project proposals.
In order to prepare the concept note and outline project activities, forumZFD sponsored a workshop together with project managers of BIRN member organisations.
The four day workshop was facilitated by Mr. Ralph Griese from the Forum for International Development and Planning, a German non-governmental organisation with expertise in projects from areas of sustainable development, development policies and education as well as in consultancy work.
During the workshop BIRN and forumZFD had the opportunity to be trained in the procedures of responding to the call for proposals from the European Commission, as well as in drafting a concept note for submission.
Patrick Schmelzer, the Regional Co-ordinator Western Balkans of the forumZFD (German Forum Civil Peace Service) hailed the workshop as a first step in growing cooperation with BIRN.
“BIRN is a unique organization and we will seek further opportunities for cooperation. The accurate and balanced reporting throughout the region and a focus on topics which also matter a lot to us make this organisation a vital partner for us. While we have a focus on empowering and professionalising the local civil society scene, BIRN has the means to give them an important voice throughout the Western Balkans and in the international arena. So we will develop further activities together. This training on log frame and project development for EU-calls was just a first step.”
Nidzara Ahmetasevic, the editor for BIRN – Justice Report was one of the trainers at the Summer School of Journalism in Sarajevo at the beginning of September.
The school was organised by the Press Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the help of German foundations Konrad Adenauer, Heinrich Böll, DVV International, and the OSCE Mission in Bosnia. Participants were more then 30 journalism students from Mostar, Sarajevo, Tuzla and Banja Luka.
The school programme was based on a theoretical and practical approach towards professional principles of journalism, media law, and self regulation for print media as well as mechanisms for protection of journalists and journalism. Ahmetasevic spoke about recommendations for court reporters, pointing out the importance of paying respect to press codes and roles defined by it. The school will be organised in the next year in all of the cities where the students are coming from, and BIRN – Justice Report editor will be among the trainers.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, through the UK Embassy in Sarajevo, has generously provided BIRN BIH with funding to support its Justice Report publication for 2008 and 2009.
Justice Report is the only daily bilingual publication dedicated to covering trials before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Justice Report also exclusively covers procedures in the local courts and the broader projects of transitional justice and coming to terms with the past at the national and regional level.
In 2008 BIRN BIH’s Justice Report publication was generously supported by:
the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sarajevo, and the National Endowment for Democracy.
Justice Report is a weekly BIRN online publication.
The National Endowment for Democracy, NED, and the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina will support BIRN’s Radio Justice Project.
Radio Justice started daily broadcasts on August 11, 2008. Twice a day, radio and some television stations around the country transmit our audio reports, produced by BIRN – Justice Report staff. Reports can also be downloaded from our web site, in the Radio Justice section.
This project will expand BIRN BiH’s presence in the broadcast media around Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previously BIRN BiH’s project consisted of brief written reports covering trials in the front of the War Crimes Chamber at the State court. Reports are transmitted daily to newspapers around the country.
In 2007, the National Endowment for Democracy supported BIRN’s Justice Report publication. The OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina gave support for the creation of the pilot programmes for the Radio Justice at the beginning of 2008.
BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s new project, Radio Justice, started broadcasting daily reports on August 11, 2008.
Every day Radio Justice will transmit two audio reports, published by Justice Report – www.bim.ba, as part of its regular activities. The reports will be produced by our staff and sent as e-mail attachments to more than 80 different media in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad.
A new staff member has joined our team. Journalist Jasmina Djikoli will be responsible for the reports transmitted as part of the Radio Justice programme.
Reports can be downloaded from our website, in the Radio Justice section, http://www.bim.ba/?tpl=342.
The goal of Radio Justice is to make the work of BIRN – Justice Report and its war crime trials reports available to as many people as possible.
The OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and National Endowment for Democracy, NED, provide financial support for BIRN BiH’s Radio Justice programme.
For additional information on Radio Justice programme please write to: [email protected]
The International Center for Transitional Justice, ICTJ, published a report entitled “War Crimes Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Hybrid to Domestic Court (2008)”, in which it refers to BIRN – Justice Report articles.
The Report pertains to the work of the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court in Sarajevo. You can read a detailed review at http://www.bim.ba/en/1/80/13959/.
ICTJ is an organization that helps countries determine responsibility for mass crimes and human rights violations in the past. The Center offers information on comparative practices, legal and political analysis, documentation and strategic research to institutions in pursuit of justice and truth, non-governmental organizations, governments and others. The Center has been active on the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 2002. It focuses on capacity building in the field of transitional justice.
BIRN – Justice Report is an agency that specializes in reporting trials conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as transitional justice issues and the general effort to confront the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Caglavica – BIRN Serbia organised a round table at Caglavica’s Media centre on Friday September 12 addressing the issue of reporting from Kosovo for Serbian media.
The event gathered 15 journalists, mainly correspondents of Belgrade-based media who were interested to discuss the picture Serbian media paints regarding Kosovo and life there after independence was declared in February 2008.
The panelists were Miki Mihajlovic from the Office for communications for the Serbian Government, Tanja Petrovic, media researcher and analyst from Belgrade as well as Pedja Obradovic, deputy editor at the Belgrade daily Blic.
In an almost three hour long and lively debate, the guests from Belgrade presented their views on the challenges of reporting from Kosovo and the impact that it has on Serbian public.
Petrovic presented a study on media coverage of events that followed the declaration of independence as well as the act itself. The results of the research showed that Serbian media were mainly focused on reporting from a Serbian perspective. In depth analysis and features about life in Kosovo took the smallest slice of media coverage of the situation in Kosovo.
Mihajlovic gave an overview of the policy of the Serbian government towards Kosovo, stressing that Belgrade will support media outlets for Serbs in Kosovo. Government has no influence on media reports, argued Mihajlovic, but is interested in keeping the Kosovo issue high on the agenda, as well as preserving Serbian media in Kosovo. He also called on representatives of the local media to apply for grants which the Serbian government wants to establish for helping media.
Obradovic talked about editorial policy and the importance of journalists’ initiative. He said Kosovo is the important issue for Belgrade media but mainly in a political context, as a part of overall Serbian political climate and these days especially in terms of foreign policy, which leaves little space for local reporters’ contribution. In spite of that, good stories on life in Kosovo can always attract attention and get coverage in the media, noted Obradovic, stressing that reporters are not offering enough attractive material.
Journalists from Kosovo used this chance to talk as well about problems that they are facing in terms of safety, access to information and bad economic situation. Freelance journalist Nikola Besevic from Pristina said that everything depends on the editorial policies of Belgrade-based media and that journalists who work for it have little scope for initiative. Refki Alija from Prizren said that media are only interested in disputes and not the struggles of everyday life in Kosovo, or any positive example.
The debate highlighted that journalists from Kosovo do not have enough support from Serbia and they were very disappointed by the treatment of the Serbian broadcasting company – RTS. One of the participants said you could not use the same language today in 21st century as the one have been using 20 years ago, when you report on the situation in Kosovo.
“We need a new language in journalism if we want to produce true stories,” he said.
This event is a part of BIRN’s project entitled, Minority Media Training and Reporting supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.
This Thursday, BIRN’s Life in Kosovo current affairs debate show will evaluate the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK’s performance in the post-war Kosovo’s justice system, nine years after it was set up.
The debate will also discuss the impact of the Hajra case, where an entire family was murdered in 2001. This case was closed last week.
Are UNMIK trials fair or were there compromises made when it was difficult to ensure sufficient witnesses and evidence? How do post-war societies deal with collaborators from previous regimes? Has Kosovo
been deprived of a process of lustration, similar to what other
post-communist eastern European countries went through?
To discuss these issues and more, BIRN has invited the following panelists:
Vahide Braha, lawyer;
Robert Dean, head of the Department of Justice;
Abdyl Mushkolaj, from the association of KLA veterans;
Skender Halilaj, former KLA member.
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television,
RTK, and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.
The show is broadcast every Thursday, starting from 20:15.
This Thursday BIRN’s Life in Kosovo current affairs debate show will focus on that how much Kosovo is ready for emergency cases, do we have capacity to confront with some of the nature fatalities, various earthquake or a huge fire.
Are the institutions ready to confront with this kind of situations? Do we have a plan for emergence reaction? Who covers the security section?
To discuss these issues and more, in the studio were:
Bislim Zyrapi – Emergence director in the ministry of Internal affairs;
Pashk Buzhala –Emergence Departmant, Ministry of Health;
Basri Lenjani – Director of the Emergence Centre in Kosovo;
Lumturije Behrami – Professor of the protection and insequre;
Florian Qehaja – Kosovar Center for Inesequre Studies and fancier
of political insequre;
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK,
and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. The show is broadcast
every Thursday, starting from 20:15
