About a dozen journalists and representatives of civil society organisations that treat health issues on June 12 in Skopje discussed priority concerns and problems in this field in Macedonia.
The debate, entitled “Health and rights of the patients”, was organized by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Macedonia in partnership with the Center for Civil Communications.
Participants from civil society agreed on the need for cooperation between media and the NGO sector, especially on informing the patients and on raising awareness in the population about health problems, prevention, overcoming taboos and informing people about risks.
NGO representatives also said that the interest in the media in health issues had seriously declined in the recent period.
Journalists on the other hand said that some NGOs, especially those working with patients’ rights, were hard to reach and not open enough for cooperation.
The NGO sector suggested designing or developing a form of continuous contact between the media and journalists and a database that will gather all the analysis and activities of the non-governmental organisations.
The debate was organized as part of the “Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society.”
It was the ninth in a series of 10 debates organized as part of the project funded by the USAID Programme for strengthening the independent media in Macedonia.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Other topics include ethnic relations, education and youth, human rights, EU integration, cultural policy, environmental issues, good governance, quality of life and marginalized groups.
About 20 NGO representatives and journalists on June 7 discussed priority issues, problems and challenges in the field of inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia.
The debate organized by BIRN Macedonia in partnership with the Center for Civil Communications was held in the “Libraria E Çarshisë” (Old Bazaar Library) in Skopje’s Old Town, a place where all the main ethnic communities in the country interact.
The participants agreed that while ethnic relations have been top news items in the last couple of years, they are rarely addressed properly.
Journalists and NGO representatives agreed that bad news should not be the only news, and that good and positive examples should be followed and covered.
A more systematic and continuous approach is missing in this field, as is the political will to make needed changes in education, it was noted.
One of the most important issues spotted in the current year is hate speech as well as inappropriate and offensive chanting at sports events based on ethnicity.
The debate was organized as part of the “Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society.”
It was the eighth in a series of 10 debates organized as part of the project funded by the USAID Programme for strengthening the independent media in Macedonia.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Other topics include health, education and youth, human rights, EU integration, cultural policy, environmental issues, good governance, quality of life and marginalized groups.
BIRN Macedonia in partnership with the Center for Civil Communications brought together journalists, NGO representatives and artists to talk about Macedonian cultural policy on June 4.
The panel discussion was aimed at detecting common issues between journalists who write about culture and NGOs working in the same sector.
It was organized as part of the “Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society.”
The panel was the seventh in a series of 10 organized as part of the project funded by the USAID Programme for strengthening the independent media in Macedonia.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Other topics include health, education and youth, human rights, EU integration, ethnic relations, environmental issues, good governance, quality of life and marginalized groups.
Dozens of different issues were discussed with journalists as potential investigative stories.
NGOs called for a more analytical and in-depth approach to cultural issues, urging the media not to focus only on positive-sounding articles.
Journalists and NGOs use different language and expressions, it was noted, an issue that should be tackled to improve the relationship and make cooperation more efficient.
Panelists concluded that although some topics might be off limits for publication in some media, journalists should cooperate with NGOs to find ways to open up those topics and reach the public through different, alternative channels.
Several dozen representatives of NGOs and journalists debated priority issues in the field of education and youth on May 30 in Skopje.
The panel discussion was organized by BIRN Macedonia in partnership with Center for Civil Communications.
Education and youth was the fifth panel discussion organized as part of the “Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society”.
The project is funded by the USAID Programme for Strengthening Independent Media in Macedonia.
The NGOs tried to explain the problems they face in their bids to reach audiences important to their work, and highlighted the difficulty of increasing interest in the media in these topics.
The journalists noted, and all participants agreed, that NGOs should focus on cooperation with those journalists that they already established, and not to spend time and effort on changing the mindset of the media at large.
It was also noted that the traditional press conference is no longer an efficient tool of communication and other means of bringing the results of the work of NGOs should be used.
The panel was the sixth in a series of 10 organized as part of a project for investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Others include health, cultural policy, education and youth, human rights EU integration, inter-ethnic relations, environmental issues and marginalized groups.
The human rights situation in Macedonia was the topic of the fifth debate organized on May 28 by BIRN Macedonia in partnership with Center for Civil Communications in Skopje.
The debate was organized as part of the Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society funded by the USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.
About 20 NGO representatives and journalists talked about possibilities and ways to cooperate on human rights, which are a priority in Macedonian society.
NGO representatives highlighted the fact that the media are not as interested as they might be in some of the issues that non-governmental organizations are working on.
They suggested that NGOs and journalists should help each other more in promoting and developing important stories.
Journalists outlined some of the key topics that interest them and asked how best to develop these topics into media stories.
The debate was the fifth in a series of 10 organized as part of the project on investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society.
The subjects were selected at an earlier meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Others include health, cultural policy, education and youth, human rights, EU integration, ethnic relations, environmental issues and marginalized groups.
Economists from Kosovo and Serbia debate the future of the disputed Trepca mine complex, in the new episode of the TV debate series “Tema”, produced by Internews Kosovo and BIRN.
Two economists from Kosovo and two from Serbia debated the economic potential of the disputed Trepca mining complex, which according to estimates could be exploited profitably for decades to come.
Panelists agreed that only dialogue can resolve the differences between Serbia and Kosovo over the half-defunct mine and restore production.
Radoman Rabrenovic, director of the Institute of Geology of Serbia, said the reserves of metal resources in Kosovo merit particular attention.
However, according to Rabrenovic, many political questions currently impede the revitalization of Trepca.
Trepca today shares the same fate as the nearby divided town of Mitrovica. In the south, the socially owned enterprise is managed by the authorities of Kosovo.
Assets in the north are managed by an administration installed by the government of Serbia.
The ethnic Albanian former director of Trepca, Nazmi Mikullovci, said that it would take less than 200 million euro to revitalize the company that he managed back in the 1980s.
“To produce metal, Trepca needs 174 million euro, according to a study we conducted in 2005. But the problem is not with money but rather the administrative division between the south and north,” he said.
“We need to overcome this this division and have Trepca function as one entirety; the investment funds are the least of problems,” he added.
The Trepca complex comprises an 80km-long and 30km-wide network of dozens of active and inactive mines, which are estimated to hold at least 50 million tons of exploitable ore.
Both sides agree that the revival of this industrial behemoth would benefit both economies, regardless of how the current political and administrative problems are resolved.
The deputy president of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Mihajlo Vesovic, said the risk of inappropriate and irrational exploitation of the resources should unite the interests of both Serbia and Kosovo.
According to him, low production levels in the company caused more trouble to Serbia than to Kosovo, as Serbian industry relied heavily on metals produced in Trepca.
Vesovic said the demand for lead and zinc, the two main ores in Trepca, was much greater in Serbia than in Kosovo.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce of Kosovo, Safet Gerxhaliu, said the impact of revitalization would be felt more in Kosovo than Serbia, as it would create at least 10,000 new jobs and exports worth around 300-500 million euro per year.
“In addition to 10,000 new jobs as a direct effect, there would be indirect employment as well, generating roughly over 20,000 jobs. This would have a very positive effect over the next 10-20 years in Kosovo,” he added.
The programme also discussed the economic interdependence between Kosovo and Serbia, where the two chambers of commerce challenged each other on the obstacles facing businessmen in the two countries.
Tema is produced by Internews Kosova in partnership with BIRN in Kosovo and Serbia and supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The episode will be aired this Saturday, May 25, 2013, at 7pm on TV PINK 2.
About 20 journalists and representatives from civil society held a debate on May 21 in Skopje on good governance in Macedonia.
The debate was organized by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Macedonia in partnership with the Center for Civil Communications, part of the Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation between Media and Civil Society funded by the USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.
Journalists and NGO representatives agreed that the topic good governance is broad and that there are dozens of priorities for Macedonian society, such as corruption, quality of the public services and accountability of institutions.
Participants agreed that journalists and NGOs should help each other and use the tools that each has as its disposal to detect and giving bigger visibility to the problems.
The debate was the fourth in a series of 10 being organized as part of a project for investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society.
The subjects were selected at a meeting between journalists and NGOs in mid-April.
Others include health, cultural policy, education and youth, human rights EU integration, inter-ethnic relations; environmental issues; and marginalized groups.
BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s deputy editor Denis Dzidic participated in a Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska education session in Bijeljina this week, an event being held from May 20-24 under the banner ‘Transitional Justice in Universities’.
Seventeen students from political science and philosophy faculties in Banja Luka, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar and Istocno Sarajevo attended the Bijeljina seminar.
It was the third such seminar organised by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Republika Srpska and funded by the Norwegian government.
Dzidic gave the opening lecture, an introduction to transitional justice. He discussed the four pillars of the concept – the right to justice, truth, reparations and institutional reforms – and talked with the students about why all of them had a vital role to play in order that Bosnian society overcomes the divisions caused by the 1990s war.
During the week, the students will also have an opportunity to hear from Refik Hodzic, communications director at the International Centre for Transitional Justice, and learn about the experiences of other countries in the field.
Dzidic and BIRN BiH will continue to be involved in the project and future education sessions held as part of the ‘Transitional Justice in Universities’ project.
BIRN Macedonia, together with Centre for Investigative journalism, SCOOP Macedonia and the Centre for Civil Communications launched a call for investigative stories on May 17.
The call is part of the ‘Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation Between Media and Civil Society’, part of a USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.
In the first call that closes on June 7, at least five journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story. More calls for investigative grants will follow, for a total of 40 stories until June 2015.
Journalists will have about three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also will have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN standards.
Topics for investigations include: health; cultural policy; education and youth; human rights; EU integration; good governance; inter-ethnic relations; environment issues; marginalised groups; quality of life.
The call only applies to journalists from Macedonia.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo and ARTICLE 19 have welcomed the draft law on the protection of journalists’ sources which was sent for its first reading by the Kosovo assembly’s media committee on April 19.
BIRN Kosovo has urged the assembly, which is to discuss the draft law on Thursday, to adopt the legislation with some amendments proposed by BIRN and ARTICLE 19.
Currently, Kosovo lacks the legal basis for the protection of journalists’ sources following the removal of previous protections. Kosovo’s constitution, criminal code and criminal procedure code do not regulate the protection of sources.
The draft legislation is based on Belgian law, which is considered one of the best such laws in Europe, but needs to be updated in order to take into account developments in the sphere of journalism.
Good legislation on the protection of sources has also been adopted in Armenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey.
BIRN Kosovo and ARTICLE 19’s full recommendations can be seen by following this link.
