Author: birnEU

Justice Report Hosts American Students

BIRN – Justice Report hosted a group of students from California in July for the second year running.

As a part of their study visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, students from the San Domenico School in California, USA, paid a visit to the BIRN – Justice Report office in Sarajevo. They met editor Nidzara Ahmetasevic and journalists, Aida Alic and Merima Husejnovic.

During this visit, Justice Report journalists discussed war crimes investigations in Bosnia, the role of media, and the challenges facing Bosnian society after the war.

Professor Ian Sether, head of the Department for History at San Domenico School, informed us that students are regular readers of BIRN reports, and use them for their studies as well as for articles on human rights issues published in their student newspaper Aeqvitas.

Justice Report in HRW Report on Bosnia

On July 10, Human Rights Watch published their report on war crimes prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Still Waiting: Bringing Justice for War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Cantonal and District Courts.”

BIRN – Justice Report is quoted several times in the report and praised for its work in covering war crimes trails in the country.

The report details numerous practical and political problems impeding these trials on a local level. The obstacles include the prosecutors’ offices lack sufficient staff and the lack of specialisation. Cooperation between prosecutors and police and between police across entity lines continues to be problematic.

Witness protection measures are rarely, if ever, employed, and witness support services are generally not available. Prosecutors often fail to make use of the available sources of evidence and do not take steps necessary to secure the suspects’ attendance at trial. Defence attorneys generally lack access to training in relevant areas of law and are often inadequately, or not at all, compensated for their work. Some cantonal and district courts have yet to try a single case. The report is available at: http://hrw.org/reports/2008/bosnia0708/

BIRN Prepares for New Regional Project

Gordana Igric, BIRN Network Director will be conducting a series of meetings in Bosnia and Herzegovina in August as part of the research phase for BIRN`s new regional project. The project will work to assist the EU integration process in the Western Balkans, through the development of a platform between local media, civil society organisations and donors in the region to ensure a broad public discussion and support for the Balkans` accession into the European Union.

Igric already conducted meetings with European Movement in Albania, GAP institute, KCSF, KIPRED, COHU and YIHR in Kosovo. A series of meetings is planned in Serbia in September.

With the new regional project BIRN aims to establish a platform for the flow of information and the exchange of experiences between the relevant actors in all countries of the Western Balkans as well as in Bulgaria and Romania.

Life in Kosovo debates the right of the employees and syndicates

This Thursday the "Life in Kosovo" TV
program discussed whether there are any real syndicates in Kosovo that protect
the rights of workers, or are they all services of politics and favors.

How does
one move from being a protector of workers’ interests to being a protector of
the government’s interests? Why aren’t the laws that directly affect Kosovar
workers being endorsed?

To discuss these issues and more, joining Jeta Xharra in
the studio were:

Gjergj
Dedaj, vice-minister of Work and Social well-being;

Haxhi
Arifi – President of the Kosovo Union of Independent Syndicates
(KUIS);
Bahri
Shabani – Former President of KUIS, now President of the Kosovo
Conferedartion
of Free Syndicates, and

Ibrahim
Rexhepi – Editor-in-chief of the daily “Lajm”

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public
Television, RTK,
and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. The show
is broadcast
every Thursday, starting from 20:15

Life in Kosovo will discuss about the three misterious

This Thursday’s “Life in Kosovo” show discussed about the late annihilation of the three sulfuric acid containers in the complex of Trepça në Mitrovicë.

Why was the issue of destroying the poison containers delayed until now? How dangerous is the sulfuric oil? Whose fault is it that these containers were allowed in Kosovo? Which company was chosen for destroying the three contains with the oil in question? How long will it take to destroy the material and how much will it cost for the Kosovo government? Is the life of the citizens living near the containers in danger?

For these issues, the people who will be discussing in “Life in Kosovo” are
representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Issues, the ministry of
Internal Affairs, experts and representatives of the demonstrators from
Mitrovica.

In this week’s show there will also be an exclusive interview with the
minister of environmental issues, Mahir Yagcilar.

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK,
and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. The show is broadcast
every Thursday, starting from 20:15.

Life in Kosovo Celebrates Third Anniversary

BIRN Kosovo celebrated the third anniversary of its television debate show, Life in Kosovo, and to promote new partnerships.

More than 400 people attended the event, including government ministers, members of parliament, mayors of Kosovo municipalities and other personalities from civil society and business.

In a short welcome speech, BIRN Kosovo Director Jeta Xharra promoted the new brand of the show which aims to become partly self-sustainable by involving commercial partners.

BIRN Kosovo introduced new partnerships with Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo that will sponsor Life in Kosovo TV debates and two special partnerships with the Municipality of Pristina and with the Museum of Kosovo, where this event took place.

“When we started this show, there were only three people working on it. Today, in the third anniversary, we have almost 30 people involved and that makes me proud,” said Jeta Xharra.

Enver Hoxhaj, Kosovo’s minister of education, also addressed the guests. His speech followed the screening of a BIRN televised report featuring a rural elementary school which functions without premises, in barracks and under very bad conditions, but which has launched a website that is regularly updated.

“I hereby promise that this school will be granted a computer lab by September 2008 and by September 2009 they will have a new building,” said Hoxhaj who praised the BIRN team for its investigative reporting.

BIRN’s Life in Kosovo TV show was also praised by Oliver Whittle, general director of Raiffeisen Bank and Agim Zatriqi, general director of Kosovo’s public TV station, RTK, where BIRN debates are aired.

“When the first debate was aired there was complete silence. The reason for this silence was because it was a complete shock since after the second broadcast I was flooded with reactions which included all sorts of questions such as what was that, where did you find her, how dare she interrupt ministers in their speech,” Zatriqi said.

BIRN’s Life in Kosovo TV show is broadcast every Thursday evening on RTK, and currently is the most watched current affairs show in Kosovo.

Life in Kosovo debates the quality of education

This Thursday the Life in Kosovo current affairs show will debate the quality of education on offer in Kosovo.

Why are there still students in Kosovo schools, who can’t read and write? Why is this still the case after they finish school? Should teachers, students, parents or institutions be blamed? What are the results of the high school graduation exam like? What strategies are needed to ensure the young people of the youngest state do not come out of schools ‘uneducated’?

To discuss these issues and more, joining Jeta Xharra in the studio will be:

Arlinda Beka – A parent from Kosovo;
Ismet Potera – Kosovo Institute of Pedagogy;
Alush Istogu – Head of the pre-University Education Department and
Mustafë Kadriu – Chief of the Evaluation and Standards Unit.

Putting their questions and concerns directly to our panellists will be:

Ismaijl Kurteshi – Head of the Education Department in Gjilan;
Jusuf Thaci – Education monitor from the civil society and
a group of high school students from Pristina, Mitrovica, Peja and Ferizaj

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK, and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. The show is broadcast every Thursday, starting from 20:15.

BIRN Condemns Attack on Reporters

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, strongly condemns an assault against the “Life in Kosovo” show team by security staff of the Kosovo Judicial Council.

On Friday, June 6, 2008, at around 13:30, BIRN staff were assaulted outside the Kosovo Judicial Council premises in Pristina, while filming with a camera.

The team was assaulted by a member of the Judicial Council security staff, an institution that is supposed to represent justice in Kosovo.

“I am surprised by such behaviour, especially when considering that BIRN has a cooperation agreement with the Judicial Council by which it allows our reporters to monitor the work of this council,” said Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo Director.

Xharra emphasised that BIRN reporters have in no way violated the ethical code of reporting and had not endangered the security of neither the building nor of the staff of the Judicial Council.

“The incident occurred outside the building, where filming is absolutely allowed,” she said.

BIRN expresses its deep concern over this case, as the incident took place in the presence of the Judicial Council’s spokesperson, Ajshe Q. Ramadani.

BIRN considers that this flagrant disregard by the security staff is unacceptable and it calls on the director of Kosovo Judicial Council, Halit Muharremi to undertake disciplinary measures against the person, who used violence against our staff.

In addition, BIRN asks this institution to provide compensation for the material damage that was caused during the incident and issue a public apology to our reporters.

In the meantime, BIRN calls on all institutions in Kosovo to ensure that such acts are no longer repeated. The duty of the reporters and the freedom of speech are protected by law, hence BIRN insists that this freedom be fully respected.

BIRN Serbia Holds Evaluation Meeting

Belgrade – BIRN Serbia organised an evaluation meeting for journalists who in the last three years have participated in the Minority Media Training and Reporting Project.

24 journalists from South Serbia, the Sandzak region, Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro participated in the discussion, which is almost one third of the total number of journalists who passed through BIRN Serbia’s training programme.

The evaluation meeting with journalists from the BIRN Serbia network is part of the overall review of project results.
This is an ongoing initiative which should be completed by mid June, and includes, besides journalists, all the key participants in implementing the Minority Media Training and Reporting Project as well as its beneficiaries such as editors from the Serbian media, Balkan Insight subscribers and other relevant stakeholders.

The meeting, organised at Belgrade’s Media Centre, was moderated by Mr. Danko Cosic of ProConcept, (www.proconcept.org.yu ) who developed the methodology for the evaluation of entire project.

The Minority Media Training and Reporting Project, generously supported by the British Embassy in Belgrade since 2005, aims to improve standards of journalism in areas with substantial minority populations and to improve understanding of minority issues among the mainstream population and decision makers, thereby challenging the current mood of suspicion and misunderstanding.
In course of the last three years, 84 journalists have passed through the primary level training while 76 of them went through the advanced level on job mentoring. 159 articles and 11 investigations were produced and published in Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) as a result of the training activities and 11 public debates on the most pressing social and political topics were held in Belgrade and targeted areas.
The final report of the evaluation will assess the activities and results in the past three years and provide BIRN with ideas for future development.

IPI Congress and SEEMO Regional Conference in Belgrade in June

Gordana Igric, BIRN’s regional network director will moderate the opening session of the South East European Media Organisation’s, SEEMO, regional conference entitled “Media, Marketing and Business” which will take place on June 18 in Belgrade.

The session will be devoted to “Political influence, ownership, regulation and editorial independence: Opportunities for developing professional journalism and high quality content,” and participants will include some of the leading media professionals from the region and abroad – Veran Matic, Zeljko Ivanovic, Nadezda Gace, Sandra Bašić Hrvatin and Aidan White.

The SEEMO conference will be organised as a regional gathering on the margins of the International Press Institute, IPI World Congress and General Assembly which will take place from 14 to 17 June in Belgrade.

The IPI Congress, which this year will be hosted by Belgrade’s Media Centre, is an exceptional opportunity for Serbian and regional media experts to exchange views and experience with leading editors, managers, journalists and world opinion makers.

To register for any of these events, the SEEMO regional conference and the IPI congress, please visit www.mediacenter.org.yu or apply here.