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BIRN Kosovo
Pristina, 30 August - 3 September 2004
06 09 2004 Seven young journalists began IWPR's Primary Level Journalism Course at the end of August, the second group of trainees to attend the Kosovo programme.
Seven
young journalists began IWPR's Primary Level Journalism Course at the
end of August, the second group of trainees to attend the Kosovo programme.
The course began with a week of intensive training, with IWPR Balkan
editor/trainer Marcus Tanner introducing the various components of journalism:
news stories, news analysis, features and comment.
During this week, Tanner along with the other course managers Tanja Matic
and Jeta Xharra discussed other aspects such as sourcing, preparing and
conducting interviews and avoiding biased and inaccurate reporting.
In addition, the trainees were also introduced to British libel law,
to which IWPR editorial services must adhere to, and discussed some of
the ethical questions that affect journalists.
The students were also set a number of practical assignments. These included
being given an idea for a story and asked to come up with possible sources
and constructing a story based on sources with contradictory information.
As well as this, they were taken to an UNMIK press conference to gain
first-hand experience of the journalistic work.
Throughout the week-long course, the group had a chance to meet international
journalists who were invited as guest speakers.
Stacey Sullivan, former Newsweek Balkans correspondent, spoke about her
career which began after she decided to go to Albania in 1992 to help
journalism students start a newspaper called Reporteri in Tirana.
Sullivan explained the pros and the cons of working first as a foreign
correspondent covering the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and as a desk editor
in New York.
Andrew Testa, the award-winning freelance photographer based in Kosovo,
talked to students about ways to go about finding the sort of the stories,
in regions like Kosovo, Albania and Moldova, that international newspapers
are interested in.
Agim Fetahu, a former Voice of America and IWPR Macedonia manager, talked
about his experience working in America and as a local journalist in Radio
Television Pristina in the Eighties.
Gordana Igric, IWPR Balkans Manager talked to the students about reporting
on human rights and showed them an award-winning report that she co-produced
for the CBS News on tracking down suspected war criminals in the Serbian
stronghold of Foca in Bosnia.
The IWPR Primary Level Journalism Course is supported by OSCE and Press
Now.
The course participants are:
Dardan Bekteshi - medical student at the University of Pristina
Jeta Limani - KFOR press officer
Lumnije Berisha - Koha Vision TV presenter
Rexhep Krasniqi - OSCE press officer
Erblina Elezaj - business student at the American University in Pristina
Haxhi Bajraktari - Koha Vision TV journalist
Srdjan Antic - OSCE Gjilan Press Officer
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
