2014 Fellowship To Be Launched in Vienna

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The 10 reporters chosen for this year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence will meet in Vienna from April 15 to April 19 to plan their research projects.

The initial seminar serves as an opportunity for team building and for coaching, as fellows are provided with professional training and tailored advice for each reporting project. They will receive guidelines in research planning, cross-border reporting and long-form story structuring.

The reporters selected earlier this year from a pool of 162 applicants will cover issues including migration, corruption, business and family life. They will supplement information gathered in their own countries with material from trips to at least two other countries. Their stories represent diverse and original takes on this year’s topic, Generations.

The seminar will be led by the new editor of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, Andrew Gray, who has been a journalist for two decades. Before going freelance, Andrew spent 15 years at Reuters, including assignments as a war reporter, Pentagon correspondent and bureau chief for the Balkans.

The programme was established in 2007 and provides 10 journalists annually with training and mentoring, as well as the financial resources to travel and carry out research, in order to produce long investigative or analytical stories that are important for the region’s development.

As of this year, the programme is supported by the ERSTE Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Prague Freedom Foundation.