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2014 Fellowship To Be Launched in Vienna

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.

2014 Fellowship Kicks off With Vienna Seminar

The 10 reporters selected for this year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence refined their story plans and honed their professional skills at a seminar in Vienna last week.

The fellows from eight countries across the region introduced themselves and their projects to the group at the three-day seminar and took part in workshops on planning, reporting, writing and producing photographs for their fellowship stories.

The reporters also discussed their stories in depth in individual sessions with the BIRN editorial team of Gordana Igric, Ana Petruseva, Dragana Zarkovic Obradovic and fellowship editor Andrew Gray.

The fellows, selected earlier this year from a pool of 162 applicants, will cover issues including migration, corruption, business and family life. Their stories represent diverse and original takes on this year’s topic, Generations.

They will supplement information gathered in their own countries with material from foreign reporting trips.

As part of the seminar programme, the fellows visited the offices of Austrian media partner Der Standard and attended an editorial planning meeting. Ten Der Standard journalists later joined the fellows for dinner to share knowledge and tips.

The seminar was held in the central Vienna offices of Erste Foundation, with representatives from fellow programme partners the Open Society Foundations and Prague Freedom Foundation also attending.

Kristina Voko

Kristina Voko is the executive director of BIRN Albania and coordinates the network’s activities, fundraising and projects in the office in Tirana.

For more than ten years she has been engaged in coordinating and managing different projects for national and international organizations, concerning the development of policies, regulatory and legal frameworks; promotion of human rights and social inclusion through the empowerment of individuals and associations; training of professionals and other actors; promotional activities for communities; etc.

During her professional experience she has been involved in project development and planning, management of donor-funded projects and project cycle management for organizations like the Open Society Foundation in Albania, World Health Organization, etc.

Also, she has worked as a consultant for different actors, such as UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, Wold Vision, Terre des Hommes and Swiss Cooperation.

BIRN Albania Launches Anti-Corruption Programme

On April 1st the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania (BIRN Albania) launched a three year programme, which aims to expose corruption and impunity, through investigative reporting and closer cooperation between journalists and civil society organizations.

The programme will include training and mentoring for journalists in investigative reporting, quarterly calls and funding for stories that expose corruption in the public sectors, media monitoring of corruption, as well as joint brainstorming workshops between NGOs and reporters.

The programme aims at exposing corruption cases in eight different sectors, including Environment, Healthcare, Judiciary, Education, Public Administration, Local Government and Organized Crime.

The purpose of the programme is to contribute to overall democratization processes in Albania by bridging the gap between civil society organizations and journalists, building their capacities and creating the common ground for their joint action in exposing the corruption cases in the country.

In September 2014, BIRN will launch a new news website in Albanian, which will bring enhanced coverage of the main issues the country faces, with investigative reports, regular news and analysis.

BIRN BiH Work to Feature in London Art Show

The Balkan Institute for Conflict Resolution, Responsibility and Reconciliation of the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology earlier this year asked BIRN BiH to collect data for an upcoming London exhibition by one of Bosnia’s leading artists, Sejla Kameric.

The exhibition set to premier in October at London’s Welcome Collection will be dedicated to Forensic Medicine.

Through the use of various original evidence, archival material, photographic documentation, film footage and audio interviews, it will showcase the journey from crime scene to courtroom.

To realise the project, Kameric will use some of the most interesting testimonies and stories that BIRN BiH recorded for its TV Justice show and published via its signature news agency for war crimes trial monitoring, Justice Report.

Kameric’s artwork will take the form of a haunting multimedia installation and an online project hosted on Welcome Collection’s website.

Welcome Collection has been recognized as one of the fastest growing and most influential cultural spaces in London. With over 500,000 visitors a year it is one of the most innovative public venues in the UK.

BIRN Kosovo strongly opposes the current content of the Draft-Law on Interception

The Ministry of European Integration has recently proposed a draft law on interception.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network strongly opposes the current content of the Draft-Law on Interception of Electronic Communication because the draft law does not have a clear purpose, it grants access to telephone calls and messaging to an unlimited number of institutions, contrary to the practice in democratic countries, authorizes the Kosovo Intelligence Agency to perform vetting of operators’ staff members, although this does not fall under KIA’s competencies and does not regulate the approach to interceptions and allows for different interpretations.

Please see BIRN legal analysis on draftlaw:

English
Albanian

Fellows for 2014 selected

The 10 participants for this year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence have been chosen.

The programme received a record 162 applications for 2014. Many were of a very high standard, making the final choice extremely difficult.

The programme’s selection committee evaluates applications based on the relevance, feasibility and originality of the proposals, as well as the applicants’ professional qualifications, motivation and journalistic approach. The committee is comprised of seven senior media figures from the Balkans and around Europe.

BIRN thanks all the applicants and encourages those who were not successful to consider applying again next year.

Here are the fellows for 2014, listed alphabetically by surname:

Jeta Abazi, Kosovo
Boryana Dzhambazova, Bulgaria
Konstantinos Kallergis, Greece
Marija Knežević, Croatia
Branko Krivokapić, Montenegro
Tanja Matic, Serbia
Marija Mitevska, Macedonia
Dragana Pećo, Serbia
Lina Vdovîi, Romania
Krasimir Yankov, Bulgaria

“Life in the Municipality”, run–off debates: Obiliq

Xhafer Gashi, AAK, promised to build a neighbourhood for the families of war veterans. According to him, the neighbourhood will have 15 houses and will cost 500 thousand euro. This project will be subsidised from the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Kosovo diaspora.

Gashi also promised water supply for Brezhnica and Kozharica villages, a project to cost 250 thousand euro and to be implemented between May-June 2014. On this note, he also pledged to build bridges in Obiliq villages, which according to him will cost 642 thousand euro, as well as 228 thousand euro to be spent for building green spaces.

Gashi also spoke about his plans to build a school in Lajthishte and Babimost villages which will cost 460 thousand euro. This will be paid through 20 per cent of the municipal budget and the rest will be subsidised from the Ministry of Education.

Gashi also promised economic development and cost reductions for the municipality.

The municipal budget for 2014 will be 4.5 million euro of which 1.2 million euro are allocated for capital investments.

“Life in the Municipality” run-off debates: Suhareka

Two candidates that made it to the second round were Bali Muharremaj (AAK) with 30.66 per cent and Sali Asllanaj (LDK) with 34.58 per cent.

The debate was held in the Municipal Assembly of Suhareka with some of the newly-elected municipal MPs. It centred on the main promises made during the first round including employment, water supply, economic development, culture and rural tourism.

The main projects to be implemented by Bali Muharremaj from AAK, were presented by his advisor and included: creating 1,200 jobs by subsidising family businesses in cooperation with local partners. Moreover, Muharremaj promised improving road infrastructure to enable tourism development, agricultural projects, and building of a new culture centre.

Sali Asllanaj,LDK, said that his programme is based on economic development, especially in agriculture, for which he promised to build 150 greenhouses, support to farming and agriculture, developing industrial zones, improving rural tourism, modern infrastructure, quality education, and building modern schools.

“Life in the Municipality” run-off debates: Dragash

The candidates that made it to the second round in Dragash were Fatmir Mehmeti, LDK, with 30.5 per cent and Salim Jonuzi, PDK, with 33.7%.

The debate was organised in the municipal assembly of Dragash, with the participation of the newly-elected municipal MPs.

In the beginning of the debate, the candidates elaborated further on the pledged they had made in the first round of debates, explaining in detail the implementation of projects, their costs and the sources of funding. They focused on education, schools, tourism, water supply, sewage system, efficient public administration and road infrastructure.

Both candidates had prepared detailed presentations of five major projects they were promising to implement in Dragash during the next mandate.

Project’s promised by Mehmeti from LDK were presented by his advisor, Qamil Kollani, and included the following: sewage system in villages, building two schools, improving road infrastructure, building one kindergarten, elimination of illegal waste landfills, as well as improved management of the municipality, including cost-cutting.

On the other hand, Jonuzi from PDK promised drafting of the urban planning, the business centre in Dragash, improved road infrastructure, water supply system for 15 villages, water filtering sewage system for villages as well as healthcare.