Aleksandra Vrbica, Author at BIRN

Detektor Journalist Wins First Prize at ‘Remembering Through Art’ Exhibition

A testimony by Srebrenica mother Emina Hajdarevic about the son she lost in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, filmed by Detektor journalist Lamija Grebo, has won first prize at the Remembering through Art online exhibition.

The video testimony is part of “Lives Behind the Fields of Death”, a joint project of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, and the Srebrenica Memorial Centre.

It was among 25 other works of art that were selected as the best within the NO-OBLIVION project this year.

The story told by Emina Hajdarevic was the only video selected, and it impressed the jury the most, so they decided to award it the first prize.

Presenting the video in front of nearly a hundred participants, Lamija Grebo said that “Lives Behind the Fields of Death” was one of the most special projects she ever worked on during a ten-year career filled with survivors’ stories.

“I am particularly proud of this award as a regional recognition, because a lot of effort has been invested in this project, and the survivors have placed confidence in us, for which I will always be grateful,” Grebo said.

According to her, personal stories are the point at which people can connect through the personal tragedy and pain inflicted by war, so it is important that projects such as “Lives Behind the Fields of Death” have a lasting life as testimonies to grave crimes.

“This award is also important because we witness the denial of genocide and other crimes as well as the glorification of war criminals on a daily basis, and art is one of the ways to fight against that,” Grebo said.

Her work will also be presented at the Reviving Balkan Arts Festival to be held in Croatia in early April.

In addition to the video, which is now part of the permanent exhibition of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, this year’s online exhibition Remembering through Art also features posters, photographs and paintings by 24 authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Portugal and Poland.

All the works are dedicated to preserving the lessons of history and promoting justice and reconciliation.

Second prize went to Vasilika Siatara from Greece for a painting called “Signs and Memories”, which got the same number of points as the award-winning artwork – but her prize will be of monetary nature.

Third prize went to Bosnian photographer Dzenat Drekovic for a photo essay “The Noise of Silence”, which tells the story of the notorious Omarska detention camp.

Fourth prize was awarded to Ioana-Cristina Bobe for “Trampled Pride”, inspired by the testimonial of Grozdana Cecez, a victim of wartime sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The exhibition and prize competition are part of the NO-OBLIVION project, funded by the European Union, which focuses on remembering the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and ensuring that the voices of victims and witnesses are not forgotten.

The initiative is supported by eight European organisations that are fostering additional connections between those whose goal is to turn art into a special tool for dealing with the past.

Meet the People Behind BIRN: Dzana Brkanic

Dzana Brkanic is a Detektor.ba (BIRN BiH) Deputy Editor. She joined BIRN in 2013 but chose journalism as her career long before that.

Journalism has attracted her since high school, as has literature. “At that time, I did not think that I would work in an organisation like BIRN. However, I thought about journalism as an important profession, which I still think today – about journalists as heroes and as people who help others,” she says.

“I started working at university as a student on the radio and 20 years flew by like that. I also worked in many media where I learned about different types of journalism from very good journalists – but I have gained a unique dimension of work and skills through the years at BIRN,” Dzana adds.

Over the past 12 years, BIRN has evolved and grown, she says.

“The organisation grew in every sense, as did I, along with it. For example, BIRN BiH dealt with war crimes that year and slowly started to monitor corruption. Today, there is almost no segment we don’t report on besides this, from terrorism and human rights to discrimination, foreign influences and people on the move. Investigative stories now are at an enviable level and BIRN as an organisation is recognisable not only in the region but also beyond,” she explains.

Before joining BIRN, her great love was video journalism, and she worked on TV because it was a challenge and an opportunity to express creativity. She is especially proud of two of her documentaries, Pod zemljom (Underground) and Četiri zida (Four Walls), which she authored.

“Underground is a story about children who were born literally four meters underground, where a hospital was built during the [Bosnian] war. Around 500 babies were born and hundreds of lives were saved there. I was fascinated by the story, the heroism, and the strength of my interlocutors,” she says.

“The second film is about the relationship between our society and politicians in the region towards the LGBT community in which I made an effort to make viewers aware of the discrimination and violence that this community unfortunately lives with.

“I like to think about how to tell a story, show emotion and convey the actual situation to the viewer. Most of all, I like teamwork on documentary films with fellow editors, cameramen and others from whom I have learned much. I’m always grateful to people who share their life stories with us, and, as in other formats, when we work, I try to do it in the best and most professional way,” Dzana says.

Dzana has won several awards. The European Union Investigative Journalism Awards and the Special Award of the European Press Prize have special meaning for her. They are also important at a time of attacks on independent media and denials of freedoms.

“For years, I was a journalist reporting from war crimes trials, interviewing victims from the past war, recording their fates and the searches for family members of the missing,” she says.

“I knew that these topics were not among the most read and that many people on social networks hid me because they said I always write difficult and sad things, but we worked on them for the sake of all those waiting for justice. So, when our newsroom received the European Press Prize for reporting on war crimes, it was an important recognition for me and all BIRN journalists,” she recalls.

“Awards for investigative journalism are really like wind at the back and a big plus. At a time of attacks on independent media and denials of freedoms, they are extremely important. And, let’s be realistic, such stories are often the ones that reveal things that are the work of the police or prosecutors,” she says.

Besides all of this, she trains young journalists and students at workshops on reporting on victims, missing persons, court reporting and investigative journalism.

“I do my best to pass on my knowledge to younger colleagues. Apart from the truth about our work, I try to show them that there is no better profession and greater satisfaction than when we help someone with our stories, discover something, or help them understand.

“I also try to present research as interesting and the work as fun because sometimes it is like that. It’s hard but it’s worth it, and I want to convey that feeling to them.

“I always leave the young with a new perspective on the topic we discussed because then they see things differently. They often remind me that we were all once young and inexperienced, and this is what I tell them – whoever works makes mistakes, and you won’t learn if you don’t try. But with reading, work, and education, progress will come.

“I am happy when I get a message from one of them whom I have motivated to do a story, when they get a job, or when they tell me that my mentoring meant something to them,” Dzana says.

She enjoys working on video and documentary stories the most. But it’s also the most difficult part of her work:

“As an editor, I generally miss the field, being more on set and talking to people. That’s what I love the most, though it’s also the most difficult thing for me because the stories about war crimes that we recorded are simply painful, human…

“Working with parents who have lost their children, with those who are still searching, and with victims of sexual violence is the most difficult, in that these stories follow you; you carry them home, you do not forget those fates, their words. But at the same time they motivate you to help them in the way that we journalists can, in the fight for truth and justice.

“When I’m driving around Bosnia and Herzegovina and I see signs with the names of settlements and villages, I start telling my passengers what happened there. Whether we like it or not, those stories have become a part of us,” she says.

The one thing she lacks is more spare time and time to do everything she wants to do – but journalism helps her with that, as well.

“Sometimes, we work at night and from home because that’s the nature of our work. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt and a granddaughter… While I visit everyone, a little time is left for friends, the occasional movie, and a book.

“I like to travel; if I could, I would visit new places all the time. Luckily, journalism made it possible for me as well,” she concludes.

Call for Proposals Aimed at Strengthening Investigative Journalism in Kosovo

Call for Proposals for EU-Funded Project to “Strengthen the Role and Capacities of Investigative Journalism in Kosovo”.

Deadline for applications: 11:59 CET, May 11, 2025.

BIRN Kosovo has the honor of notifying all interested parties of the opening of the Call for Proposals to implement sub-grants in the scope of the EU-funded project entitled “Strengthen the Role and Capacities of Investigative Journalism in Kosovo”.

This Call for Proposals aims to provide opportunities for the public broadcaster, national and local televised media and online media who operate and work in Kosovo to implement actions that aim to produce new content for their respective media. The project seeks to develop independent, investigative, impartial, unbiased and publicly beneficial journalism, and equip the beneficiaries with the required skills and resources to implement creative, investigative, legally sound and publicly beneficial journalism.

This Call for Proposals contains one lot:

LOT I: The production of new content through investigative and analytical reporting that covers topics such as human rights, gender equality and gender-sensitive reporting, disinformation, good governance, rule of law, public procurement, employment, education and health — including priorities listed in the ERA II strategy.

Applications MUST be sent by email to [email protected] by 23:59 CET on May 11, 2025.

All applications must be prepared and submitted in either the Albanian, Serbian, or English languages.

Application document in Albanian

Application document in Serbian

Application document in English

Hate Speech Marred Kosovo’s 2025 Election, BIRN Report Finds

Election oversight bodies need new powers to tackle the falsehoods, disinformation and ‘dehumanising’ abuse that tarnished February’s parliamentary polls, a new BIRN report says.

Kosovo’s 2025 parliamentary election campaign was marred by unprecedented hate speech and disinformation from local and foreign actors, raising concerns about the integrity of future elections unless significant action is taken, a new BIRN report, launched on Wednesday, concluded.

Kreshnik Gashi, editor-in-chief of BIRN and Internews Kosova’s co-publication KALLXO.com, said one of the issues identified was the “usage of Russian techniques, also known as techniques of dehumanising in elections – a trend on the rise in the recent years, which unfortunately was used in the last elections in Kosovo”.

As examples, he noted how political opponents were routinely compared to animals or branded as “mentally incompetent” or “Serbian spies”.

The report, “Hate Speech and Disinformation During the 2025 Election in Kosovo”, produced with the support of the European Union Office in Kosovo, monitored 20 television and radio stations, including two Belgrade-based and two Tirana-based media outlets, as well as reviewing over 4,000 online publications, examining the prevalence of hate speech and disinformation.

Many media provided a platform for unverified, sensationalist and spurious allegations that often went unchallenged, the report concluded.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, in a speech at the launch of the report, said: “Without the truth we cannot have a genuine democracy. Without truth, our decision making becomes uncertain, trust among citizens and institutions weakens and above all the space for disinformation and manipulation is expanded.”

The head of EU office in Kosovo, Aivo Orav, warned that “disinformation is more than a deceptive context, it is a direct threat to democracy”.

During a panel discussion, Brikenda Rexhepi, editor-in-chief of local Kosovo media outlet Koha, said a positive point is that Kosovo continues to have freedom of speech, adding: “Although certain media reported in favour of particular political parties, there were also media which reported accurately.”

The February 9 elections were conducted in a peaceful and competitive manner and saw a slight increase in the number of seats held by women in parliament.

But the campaign was accompanied by hate speech, disinformation and divisive narratives, in some cases using Artificial Intelligence, AI, and disproportionately targeting women.

Kosovo’s Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP, found political parties responsible for 30 incidents of hate speech in the campaign.

However, as Gashi explained on Wednesday, this did not result in the removal of the offending content from the parties’ or specific politicians’ websites and digital platforms. “On election day alone [February 9], fact-checkers identified at least 100 cases of disinformation,” Gashi recalled.

The report found that during the election campaign, local and foreign actors, mainly in Serbia and Russia, increased disinformation related to inter-ethnic violence and a possible Serbia-Kosovo war.

Russia, in particular, pushed a narrative that incumbent Prime Minister Albin Kurti was planning the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs with the support of the West. Moscow also amplified Serbia’s attacks on Kosovo Serbs who chose to run against the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party.

BIRN concluded that the authorities are currently unable to tackle disinformation and so safeguard the right of voters to make a free and informed choice when picking their elected representatives.

The report recommends empowering electoral and media oversight bodies to tackle hate speech. It calls also for regulation of the use of AI and improved transparency on campaign spending.

The publication event, supported by the European Union in Kosovo, gathered 93 participants, out of whom 54 were women.

BIRN Kosovo Launches Documentary, ‘The Impact of Money Laundering on Poverty’

A new documentary investigating how illicit financial flows deepen poverty and inequality in the Western Balkans premiered on Friday at the Reporting House in Prishtina.

The film, The Impact of Money Laundering on Poverty, produced by BIRN Kosovo and authored by KALLXO.com’s editor-in-chief, Kreshnik Gashi, brought together more than 60 participants from Kosovo’s top institutions, international organisations and civil society.

High-level figures, including the Governor of the Central Bank, the Director of the Tax Administration, the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Prosecution Office, and representatives from embassies, EULEX, the EU Office and judicial institutions, watched the unveiling of a documentary that connects financial crime to real-world social costs: poverty, weakened institutions and worsening income disparity.

In opening remarks, BIRN Kosovo’s Executive Director, Jeta Xharra, stressed that tackling money laundering is key to protecting democracy in the region.

“Democracy is still in the process of consolidation. If illicit money continues to influence politics and the economy, true democratic governance remains out of reach,” Xharra said.

Kosovo’s outgoing Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, addressed the government’s ongoing battle against corruption, while Acting Chief State Prosecutor Besim Kelmendi warned about the daily impact of financial crime.

“The fight against corruption and organised crime is a battle for our future and we agree that corruption strikes at the foundations of our state,” he declared.

The premiere concluded with closing remarks from Kreshnik Gashi, who emphasized that the documentary is not just a media product but a call to action.

“The documentary shows that citizens have been forced to emigrate because crime destroyed their businesses. Citizens are having a hard time buying apartments and building houses, not because they are lazy but because money laundering has increased their prices,” Gashi said.

The 50-minute film features exclusive interviews with 12 experts, including prosecutors, financial investigators, tax and customs officials, academics and journalists from Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro.

Drawing on their insights, it exposes the systemic enablers of money laundering and how it exacerbates poverty and social inequality in the region.

From real estate fraud to shell companies and criminal enterprises operating across borders, the film paints a disturbing picture of how dirty money infiltrates legitimate economies, inflating prices and pushing average citizens to the margins.

After the premiere, attendees gathered to reflect on how the film should serve as a wake-up call and a tool for advocacy in the fight against financial crime.

As the Western Balkans continues to face challenges linked to transparency, governance and socio-economic inequality, the launch of the documentary marks a pivotal moment in using journalism and storytelling to push for institutional accountability and reform.

The documentary was produced with the support of the British embassy as part of the project “Mass Education of Kosovo Citizens on the Consequences of Money Laundering, Types of Money Laundering, and Institutional Challenges in Combating Money Laundering”.

Two BIRN Journalists in Serbia Targeted with Pegasus Spyware

Two journalists from BIRN in Serbia were the targets of a failed attempt to install the powerful Israeli spyware Pegasus on their phones, a forensic analysis conducted by Amnesty International has confirmed.

By Aleksa Tosic

On February 14, within an hour of each other, two BIRN journalists in Serbia each received a Viber message written in Serbian and sent from the same unknown number.

“Do you have any info that he is next? I heard something completely different…” read one, written as if it could be from a journalistic source. Each message contained a link, which set alarm bells ringing. Neither journalist clicked on it, and BIRN enlisted the digital forensic support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.

Six weeks later, BIRN can confirm that both messages were part of an attempt to install Pegasus spyware on the journalists’ devices.

“We discovered that the text messages contained hyperlinks to a Serbian language domain name which we have determined with high confidence to be associated with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of the Amnesty Security Lab.

Developed by the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group, Pegasus is one of the world’s most sophisticated and invasive digital surveillance tools, providing access to an infected phone’s messages, emails, camera, microphone, and files, all without the owner’s knowledge. Journalists have been frequent targets.

“When I received the message, I was at home, which I consider a violation of my privacy; the constitution guarantees that surveillance and eavesdropping are prohibited in my home,” said one of the targeted BIRN journalists, who asked not to be named.

“As soon as I saw the message, I noticed the sender wasn’t in my contacts, they were communicating directly without introducing themselves, and I wondered who had given them my number.”

Without clicking on the link, the journalist replied to the message, asking for the sender to identify themselves. The message failed to send. When the journalist called the number, it was unavailable.

Amnesty International concluded there was a high probability that one or more actors within Serbia’s state apparatus, or agents acting on their behalf, were behind the ‘one-click’ Pegasus attack.

“Today, it’s me,” the journalist said. “Tomorrow it could be someone else. It’s the story that matters, not me.”

A warning?

Both journalists received the messages on February 14 from a Viber account registered to the Serbian phone number +381 65 994 0263. The number was registered with Serbian state-owned telecommunications operator Telekom Srbija and has been unreachable since that date.

Jelena Veljkovic, an award-winning BIRN journalist, received the message at 12:55 PM on her Android phone and did not open it. The second journalist, who requested anonymity, received their message from the same number less than an hour later, at 1:46 PM on an iPhone. The message contained Serbian text and a link leading to a Serbian-language domain.

Amnesty International’s digital forensic team determined with high confidence that the domain in the link was connected to Pegasus spyware. It is a conclusion based on years of research into the abuse of such spyware, which NSO Group says it sells only to “vetted state clients” to for the purpose of fighting “crime and terrorism”.

Amnesty opened the link in a secure environment; it redirected to a fake version of the N1 news website at https://n1info.com. The experts noted that a previous Pegasus attack in July 2023, which targeted a Serbian anti-government protest leader, used the same fake news site for redirection.

“The message was blurred by Viber as a security measure,” said Veljkovic. “I didn’t dare do anything that might allow installation. I don’t know what was written, but I could see that it had two lines of text in white letters and two lines in blue letters – a link to something.”

Veljkovic immediately blocked the number.

“I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the message, but when I got home and checked our newsroom chat, I saw that another colleague had received a message from the same number at nearly the same time,” Veljkovic said, adding that it felt deeply unsettling, particularly because she used her phone both for work and in her personal life.

Veljkovic said she took it as a warning.

“Knowing that someone had both the motive and the money to deploy such a tool, knowing all that Pegasus can do… it can be interpreted as a warning, as pressure: ‘Watch out, we’re watching you’, because the attacker could count on the fact that BIRN journalists wouldn’t click on the link so easily.”

“We don’t know who is behind this attack. I have my suspicions, but I don’t want to speculate. I don’t even know why they chose me and my colleague specifically – maybe it was a warning to the entire BIRN newsroom.”

Not the first, unlikely to be the last

NSO Group says its products are used exclusively by “state intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime and terrorism”.

In a letter to Amnesty International, the Israeli firm said that all its systems are “sold exclusively to vetted state clients”.

In a response to BIRN, NSO Group said it adheres to international human rights regulations and export laws and could not accept Amnesty International’s findings without conducting an internal evaluation.

Amnesty has documented the misuse of Pegasus in Serbia before.

In November 2023, Amnesty International, alongside Access Now, the SHARE Foundation, and Citizen Lab, documented two cases of Serbian civil society members being targeted by ‘zero-click’ Pegasus attacks, requiring no user interaction. The investigation also uncovered a third, previously unreported case in which a Serbian activist was targeted with a ‘one-click’ Pegasus attack in July 2023.

Amnesty contacted Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency, BIA, for a response in November 2024 and again in March 2025, but received no reply.

Rodoljub Sabic, a lawyer and Serbia’s former Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, told BIRN:

“The illegal use of all these ‘tools’ – when practiced by the authorities – is incompatible with the idea of the rule of law and violates multiple constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens. From the perspective of media freedom and journalists’ rights, it is especially dangerous because it threatens one of the fundamental standards of journalism – the confidentiality of journalistic sources.”

Milorad Ivanovic, editor-in-chief of BIRN Serbia, said the organisation would not be intimidated.

“Although the espionage attempt was sophisticated, the message it sends is primitive: that we should be silenced, retreat, and be afraid. This will not stop us,” he said.

“On the contrary, we will be even more determined to do what we do best: uncover the truth, protect our sources, and serve the public interest. Because you cannot silence the truth with spyware. You only make the truth more necessary.”

The targeted journalist who requested anonymity said the spying on journalists was unlikely to stop.

“I don’t believe we’ll be the last in the newsroom to experience this; I had sensitive contacts during that period – maybe that’s exactly why we attracted attention,” the investigative journalist said.

“In our job, we all have such sources and stories, so it won’t stop with just the two of us. They don’t need to install spyware on my phone. We publish our texts publicly, so anyone from the intelligence services can read them for free. Investigative journalism is patriotism. We don’t get badges and weapons, we don’t carry repressive power, but we expose what needs to be exposed for Serbia to be better, by uncovering what is wrong.”

BIRN Kosovo Conducts Training on the Role of the Local Level in Countering Extremism and Terrorism

On March 26, 2025, BIRN Kosovo conducted a one-day training session for officials from the Municipality of Istog/Istok aimed at deepening their understanding of the State Strategy for Preventing and Countering Terrorism and strengthening local capabilities in tackling the pressing security challenges posed by extremism.

The training addressed various facets of terrorism, exploring different manifestations of violent extremism. It then progressed to discussing the strategic goals outlined in the Strategy.

Labinot Leposhtica, the Legal Office and Monitoring Coordinator at BIRN Kosovo and member of the Working Group for the National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Terrorism, emphasized the crucial role local communities play in combating extremism and terrorism. He underscored the pressing need for the strategy to be effectively implemented at the local level.

Milot Sfishta, a representative from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, highlighted the vital role that local authorities play in achieving the goals of the Strategy.

The event provided a detailed presentation of the situation concerning returnees, underlining the significance of local involvement in the overall process.

During the training, participants discussed the challenges of preventing terrorism and violent extremism in Kosovo. They emphasized the importance of early identification—whether of potential radical behavior or childhood aggression—as a key to effective prevention. They also highlighted the need for context-specific strategies, cautioning against directly copying models from other countries without adapting them to local realities.

The one-day workshop, which is part of the ‘Resilient and Inclusive Community Programme’ funded by GCERF, had 12 participants, 5 of whom were women.

During the workshop, the attendees were engaged and expressed their opinions that such workshops are very important for them as a referral mechanism to be more informed on P/VE, R&R, and other forms of extremism so that they can exercise those in the Municipality of Junik.

BIRN Journalist Assaulted by Ruling Party Activist in Serbia

BIRN journalist Sasa Dragojlo was assaulted by a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party while covering a protest in Belgrade, but police refused to identify the assailant.

Journalists’ associations have called for a proper investigation after a Serbian Progressive Party activist attacked BIRN journalist Sasa Dragojlo while he was reporting on a protest in Belgrade’s Zvezdara district on Sunday.

The attack happened in front of several police officers, who removed the assailant but ignored calls to check his identity.

The incident happened while local residents were demonstrating against Serbian Progressive Party activists who had set up promotional stands outside an open-air market to attract new members to the ruling party. The promotional effort, which came amid ongoing mass protests across Serbia about official corruption and negligence, sparked anger among some locals.

Before the assault, Dragojlo had identified himself as a journalist, which only seemed to provoke the attacker further. The incident was caught on video, recorded by Dragojlo and by other witnesses at the scene.

“This kind of attack would be unacceptable against any citizen, and the police should have responded. But in this case, it’s clear the attack was escalated because I was on duty as a journalist,” Dragojlo said.

“You can clearly hear me identifying myself on the recording. The attacker reacted aggressively, saying, ‘Oh, you’re a journalist, huh?’ before lunging at me,” he added.

Despite presenting his press credentials, Dragojlo’s request for the police to identify the attacker was ignored.

“The officers were more focused on me than on the attacker, which only reinforces the impression that they weren’t just failing to do their job – they were biased,” he said.

The case has been reported to prosecutors through the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, NUNS. Both NUNS and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, UNS, condemned the attack and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

“This was an attack on a journalist while on assignment – one who had clearly identified himself,” said Dragana Zarkovic Obradovic, director of BIRN Serbia.

“We’ve reported the incident and are closely watching how the authorities respond, not just to the attack itself, but also to the fact that police officers on the scene failed to identify the attacker. If there’s no proper response, it sends the message that attacks on journalists are acceptable,” she added.

Protests have been continuing in Serbia for several months, sparked by anger and grief about the Novi Sad Railway Station disaster in November, which left 16 people dead. The student-led protest movement has become the biggest challenge to the rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party since the party came to power in 2012.

Call for Journalists to Participate in BIRN’s Regional Camp

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) opens a new Call for Applications for the three-day regional camp on legally safe reporting and crisis reporting.

This camp is a joint initiative of the EU-funded project “Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey II” and “Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans”, supported by the Open Society Foundation Western Balkans.

Given the delicate state of democracy in the Western Balkans, it is crucial to possess skills in crisis reporting, which include covering riots, protests and elections. These skills are vital for upholding professional standards and ensuring the safety of journalists. Journalists frequently face defamation in tabloid media and on social media for their professional conduct. They also encounter challenges in maintaining their digital security and safeguarding their work and sources.

This regional training camp is tailored to address these challenges through a multi-sectoral approach, engaging experts from various related fields to impart their knowledge and skills. The training will focus on safety as well as effective techniques for countering attacks and implementing proactive measures. Additionally, by building the capacity of journalists, we ensure they have the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to combat surveillance, censorship, and the misuse of digital technologies.

The goal of the regional training camp is to equip journalists with specialized knowledge that enables them to protect themselves and their workplace from various threats, including physical, digital and psychological attacks. The sessions will be led by a diverse group of trainers and guest speakers, including BIRN staff and distinguished external speakers.

Who can apply?

To apply for the programme, applicants are required to meet the following criteria:

Be a resident of one of the six Western Balkans countries.
Have at least two years of working experience in the journalism sector including freelance journalists from six Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
Demonstrate strong motivation and a commitment to participate in the training.

BIRN is dedicated to promoting and achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture, so we encourage individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups, and those with disabilities to apply.

How to apply?

Applicants interested in this regional camp should fill in the application form in English by Sunday March 30, 2025.

Selection criteria

Applications will be evaluated as follows:

Selection Criteria	Points
Working Experience: At least two years of experience in journalism and freelance journalism	50 points
Demonstration of strong motivation and commitment to participation in the training	50 points

The 20 highest-rated applicants will be selected.

Language

The training will be held in English.

Location

The training will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The selected participants will receive details about the agenda and accommodation.

Deadline for applications

Sunday, March 30, 2025, 23:59 Central European Time

Dates of the training course

April 28-30, 2025

Remarks

Travel costs and accommodation will be covered by BIRN.

The training programme has been developed in partnership with A Culture of Safety (ACOS) Alliance. ACOS works to embed a culture of safety within journalism, advance safety standards, and help journalists and newsrooms implement the Freelance Journalist Safety Principles through their safety training initiatives and resources.

Meet the People Behind BIRN: Aleksa Tesic

Aleksa Tesic has been a journalist at BIRN Serbia for over three years. He mainly covers technology and the misuse of personal data of citizens.

Aleksa graduated in journalism and communications at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. As one of the youngest members of our network, he feels “a sense of responsibility, respect for the organisation, and a desire to prove myself.

“We, the young members, are here to push the organisation towards innovation and open it up to new trends. On the other hand, we stand on the shoulders of experienced media professionals, and personally, I strive to learn and absorb as much as I can from them”, he says.

He enrolled in journalism largely because of the investigative aspect.

“After my first job in marketing, I was at a crossroads and decided to pursue investigative journalism. Even during my studies, I attended a panel where I listened to my now-colleague from BIRN. His story completely intrigued me at the time – the investigative aspect and the adrenaline that comes with it,” he recalls.

When he started working at BIRN, he wasn’t initially that attracted to the topic of the misuse of personal data of citizens, journalists and activists. But it grew on him.

“This topic was simply assigned to me as part of a project. However, through discussions with my editor, I soon realised how interesting this could be to the public – especially since, at that time, no one in Serbia was specifically covering these issues; the topic was just emerging.

“The more I investigated, the more personally connected I became to these topics. I realised how difficult it is to obtain information, which, in turn, motivated and challenged me to break through. A few months later, my first big discovery came – the encrypted phones for EPS (Serbia’s state electricity company).

“Throughout the process, the most valuable thing for me was learning how to uncover and investigate. The final product, the investigative stories, came as a natural consequence of that learning process, and over time, it became easier,” he says.

Recently, the Novi Sad School of Journalism awarded him the Marina Kovacev Annual Award in the Best Investigative Journalism, Young Journalists Category, for his work in the above-mentioned field.

“For me, this award means recognition from my peers, which I deeply appreciate. Investigative journalists often get so immersed in their next investigation that they forget what they’ve already accomplished – they don’t stop to smell the roses or reflect on their achievements in the constant pursuit of the next big story,” he says.

“This is not just my award – it was given to me for my contributions, but those contributions were made possible with the support of many people: colleagues, sources, experts, institutions… I would love to see more young investigative journalists every year because they are greatly needed, and competition is healthy,” Aleksa adds.

One of the main BIRN programmes is Reporting and Monitoring Human Rights and Freedoms, focusing on Digital Rights. BIRN Serbia often reports about this and about technology in general. Aleksa explains what some of the commonest digital/online scams are, and how to detect them.

“Mostly phishing, Ponzi, and pyramid schemes. For years now, various phishing and Ponzi scams have been spreading via SMS and the internet. And those schemes still thrive in Serbia; some have been running for years, even though it’s common knowledge that they are scams.

“Serbia is not unique in this regard; digital fraud always finds fertile ground in countries that have a weak response to these issues. And Serbia is known to be one of them. The fact that all of this has gone unpunished and unchecked for years speaks volumes about the weakness and negligence of institutions. Since individuals are mostly left to fend for themselves, people need to educate themselves and develop awareness of cybersecurity threats. Digital literacy is often the first step,” he adds.

Digital supervision is sensitive, especially in Serbia, where the government seems oriented towards suppressing critical voices in the country.

“Digital channels and technologies are highly useful tools for this purpose. However, security services should primarily focus on actual threats, which is what citizens pay them for, while the regime should respond to public criticism professionally, civilly, and in accordance with the law. Digital repression and electronic surveillance of activists, students, civil society representatives, and journalists are anything but lawful,” Aleksa continues.

Although technology is the core of his work, he likes to spend his spare time away from it.

“I enjoy visiting galleries, film screenings, going to basketball games, reading classics and exercising. I own a parrot, and when the opportunity arises, I like to make a mess in my apartment with acrylic paint or clay. Lately, I’ve also developed an interest in making sweets and Indian food,” he says.

“One of the ‘downsides’ of investigative journalism is that it’s addictive; it constantly tries to consume a journalist’s time, and the real challenge is resisting that and carving out time for yourself. I once heard a saying along those lines: ‘If journalism is the only thing you know, then you’re not a good journalist,’” he concludes.