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11 07 2007 Martina Baleva, one of the co-authors of a controversial historical research project, submitted a Balkan Insight analysis as part of a complaint she lodged against one of Bulgaria’s private television channels, SKAT, Deutsche Welle reported on their website at the end of June.
The complaint asked that measures be taken against SKAT, which announced a 1000 leva (500 euro) award to those who can provide Baleva’s personal address and a recent photograph. The complaint was sent to the Bulgarian National Council for Electronic Media and forwarded to all government institutions and political parties and to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.
The research project, “Batak as a Bulgarian Place of Remembrance”, co-authored by Berlin’s Free University Professor Ulf Brunnbauer and doctoral student Martina Baleva, examined the role of the fine arts in the creation of national conscience myths.
Bulgarian media and political figures exploded in April with accusations that the project was trying to revise key events of Bulgaria’s history and deny the 1876 Batak massacre. The press conference to introduce the project, planned for May, never took place.
In the analysis “Bulgaria: Patriotic Outrage Dominates EU Parliament Campaign” from May 18, Balkan Insight reported that a banner worn by Volen Siderov of the Bulgarian far right party, Ataka, as he closed his campaign for election to the European Parliament read "Baleva - to the guillotine, impale the Judean German!". The full text of the article can be seen at http://www.birn.eu.com/en/84/10/2952/.
The Balkan Insight analysis will also be used by Baleva in the complaint she plans to lodge against the Ataka party for its public incitement to murder, Deutsche Welle reported.
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.
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