Author: birnEU

Under the Spotlight: Capital Investments Projects in Serbia

BIRN Serbia
Promoting institutional transparency and accountability through investigative reporting.

Summary

BIRN continues promoting government transparency and accountability through investigative reporting. BIRN Serbia will continue operating its flagship web platform Javno (Public, www.javno.rs), which currently hosts 20 databases that monitor public spending and the work of the judiciary. The watchdog’s searchable databases contain information such as court cases on tax evasion and money laundering, public procurements approved through emergency measures, subsidies distributed to media by local governments, and travel expenses incurred by government officials.

The project will also encourage other media organizations and relevant NGOs to utilize its databases for other investigative, research, and accountability initiatives.

Donor: National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

Information Sheet

Main Objective

Promoting institutional transparency and accountability through investigative reporting.

Activities

1) Production of investigative articles;

2) Creation of two databases on reconstruction projects for health care facilities, public schools, and energy companies in Serbia;

3) Production of a series of multimedia materials, such as videos and infographics, in order to make the investigative stories more appealing and understandable to the general public.

Target Groups

Local media journalists, state representatives, local-government representatives, public at large, CSOs representatives

Where is the Place of Media in New Internet Governance Policies?

BIRN Serbia
Raising involvement of the media industry in a public debate on new development policies and internet governance issues.

Summary

During 2020, new legal and strategic documents are expected to be adopted in Serbia reshaping media landscape in a digital environment.
Internet and new technologies are the principal transformers of the media sector that bring important change to the ways of informing citizens. Development is based not only on new technologies that are accelerated by the innovation in IT industry (programmes for creation of databases, virtual reality, video, podcast, video 360) but also on new policies focused on internet governance that have a strong impact on the media industry. Only on the European level new directives on copyright, personal data protection were adopted, the directive on AVMSD is in the process of being amended. At the global forums, regulation of internet and internet governance are the most important topics the media industry is dealing with. This issue is especially important for developing countries (or those in transition, as it is the case with Serbia) and which stayed marginalised so far. Above-mentioned issues, BIRN intends to explore and put in a local context, thus counterbalancing the lack of meaningful debate in Serbia.
Media Strategy and other national initiatives, such as Digital Serbia, do not recognize the liaison between media development and internet governance. In such an environment, internet governance policies could be considered as an additional responsibility which has been imposed on media, but as well as an opportunity to overcome or bypass the current deficiency of media regulation.
BIRN will conduct research in order to formulate policy position and strengthen role of media in upcoming processes. With this project, we are aiming to contribute to a new rethinking of media policies and media development.

Donor: Open Society Foundation, Serbia

Information Sheet

Main Objective

Raising involvement of the media industry in a public debate on new development policies and internet governance issues.

Specific Objectives

The initiative is intended to support CSOs in Serbia to test, evaluate and scale their advocacy initiatives in a more strategic way.

Target Groups

Media professionals, decision-makers, state institutions representatives, media managers, journalists, CSOs, IT and telecommunication organisations and institutions

Main implementer

BIRN Serbia

Raising Critical Awareness on Internet Governance in Albania

BIRN Albania

This initiative is a part of the project “Towards Improved Labour Relations and Professionalism in the Albanian Media”, funded by the European Commission, represented by Delegation of the European Union to Albania and implemented by the partnership of the Albanian Media Institute (AMI) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Summary

Through this project, BIRN Albania aims to involve the media stakeholders in the public debate on the place of the media in new Internet governance policies. Digitization and the Internet have a strong influence on the media because, on the one hand, they are powerful drivers of development, on the other hand, social networks and similar platforms endanger their survival, making them less socially relevant and endangering their business model and economic survival. Nevertheless, these substantive changes are little discussed in professional media circles, and in particular lack systematic data and thorough research to trigger debate. This initiative is part of the project “Towards improved labour relations and professionalism in the Albanian media”, funded by the European Commission, represented by Delegation of the European Union to Albania and implemented by the partnership of the Albanian Media Institute (AMI) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Information Sheet

Main Objective:

Through this project, BIRN Albania objective is to contribute to a new reflection on media policies and media development related to internet governance in the country.

Specific Objective:

Reviewing the current landscape of Internet governance in Albania, including various existing legal, technical, corporate, and human rights initiatives relevant to journalism and media, and explore the primary issues and processes that overlap between media development and Internet governance;

Increasing critical understanding and public debate on how internet governance related policies and practices can influence media professionalism and development.

Donor:

European Commission/ Delegation of the European Union to Albania

Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence – Call Open

Our flagship Fellowship programme is expanding.

After 14 years of supporting journalists across the Balkans, we are now also accepting applications from Visegrad Group countries — Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

The Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence provides financial and editorial support to professional journalists who have strong ideas for cross-border stories. This year’s theme is the Rule of Law.

Send us your application with your proposal by March 10.

For more information and how to apply please visit: 
balkaninsight.com/fellowship-for-journalistic-excellence/

BIRN Albania Holds Workshop on Political Party Finances

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania, together with the Albanian Center of Quality Journalism, held a workshop on February 6 on political party financing.

The workshop, supported by the British embassy in Tirana through the National Democratic Institute, was attended by 28 journalists and aimed to introduce reporters to best practices on campaign financing and regulation.

The workshop was led by Lolita Cigane, an international expert from Latvia on issues of campaign and political party financing. Cigane has worked on campaign finance reform since 2001, when she was first the project director of a campaign finance monitoring project co-run by Transparency International Latvia and the Soros Foundation Latvia. From 2010-2018 she was a member of Latvia’s parliament.

Cigane presented the Latvian example to the Albanian reporters, explaining how the Baltic country went from an unregulated ‘jungle’ to a well-functioning system of political party campaign financing, and the role that civil society and media played in the process.

The participants then held a brainstorming session for possible investigations into campaign finance issues.

BIRN Kosovo Trains Auditors in Media Communication Skills

BIRN Kosovo held its first training session with the Auditor General and Head of Department for International Communication and Cooperation in Auditing on February 3 as part of a project aimed at increasing transparency and accountability over the management of public funds.

Supported by the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pristina, the training courses are intended to improve the performance of the Auditor General and National Audit Office staff in reporting and providing information on public spending.

During the training, the executive director of Internews Kosovo and Pproducer and director of the ‘Life in Kosovo’ TV show, Faik Ispahiu, gave insights into how to organise a public presentation, including arranging the space, assigning tasks, preparing speeches, and creating a presentation plan.

The training was followed up with a technical exercise showing how to use a prompter during public appearances.

BIRN Kosovo will provide the Auditor General and the National Audit Office with two further training sessions, aimed at improving the performance of the Auditor General and National Audit Office staff during public appearances and on social media.

Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement

BIRN Hub

The project aims to strengthen investigative reporting capacities and public interest in topics related to environmental protection in Montenegro.

Summary

The project aims to strengthen investigative reporting capacities and public interest in topics related to environmental protection in Montenegro, while increasing the amount of quality media content related to relevant EU negotiation chapters (Chapter 27, as well as 23 and 24).


Donor

EU Delegation in Montenegro

Main Objective

Project’s goal is to strengthen participatory democracy and the EU integration process in Montenegro by empowering and stimulating an enabling professional and financial environment for pluralistic media.


Specific Objectives

It also aims to foster independent and investigative journalism in order to generate quality media content, both for national and local media, in areas related to Montenegro’s European integration process.


Main Activities

The project will help inform the public about the most important issues related to Montenegro’s further EU integration, but also allow people to get directly involved through a newly-designed web platform that will enable them to become active citizens and amateur journalists (citizen reporters) by reporting on local environmental issues.

Target Groups

Media and journalists from Montenegro, CSOs, state institutions, EU representatives, public.


Main Implementer

Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro, CIN CG


Partners

BIRN, Weekly Monitor

BIRN and Partners Launch Environmental Media Project in Montenegro

BIRN and its partners in Montenegro have launched a new project entitled ‘Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement’

The two-year project will be implemented by BIRN, the Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro, CIN CG, and weekly news magazine Monitor, supported by the EU Delegation in Podgorica.

This project aims to strengthen investigative reporting capacities and public interest in topics related to environmental protection in Montenegro, while increasing the amount of quality media content related to relevant EU negotiation chapters (Chapter 27, as well as 23 and 24).

Its goal is to strengthen participatory democracy and the EU integration process in Montenegro by empowering and stimulating an enabling professional and financial environment for pluralistic media.

It also aims to foster independent and investigative journalism in order to generate quality media content, both for national and local media, in areas related to Montenegro’s European integration process.

“This project comes at the perfect moment for Montenegro, as citizens have finally started waking up and raising their voice against numerous environmental violations,” said Dusica Tomovic, managing editor of BIRN’s regional publication Balkan Insight and organisation’s representative in Montenegro.

Tomovic cited public protests against the cutting down of cypress trees in Bar, the building of an adventure park in a national park in Zabljak and of a mini hydropower plant in Savnik, as well as other environmental problems across the country.

“We believe that citizens were encouraged to act due to numerous previous investigative articles on environment devastation, developed through our previous EU grants, while each protest was widely supported by media,” Tomovic said.

“At the same time, Montenegro opened negotiations under Chapter 27 only half a year ago, in which input related to the environment will be of very high importance for the next EU country report on Montenegro, the future of Montenegro’s accession process, and the wellbeing of all citizens,” she added.

The project will help inform the public about the most important issues related to Montenegro’s further EU integration, but also allow people to get directly involved through a newly-designed web platform that will enable them to become active citizens and amateur journalists (citizen reporters) by reporting on local environmental issues.

Vasko Magleshov

Vasko Magleshov is а journalist, anchor and TV host for more than 10 years.

He began his career at a National TV broadcaster Sitel, worked for a satellite channel TV 24 News, and continued his career as news-editor at TV21 and Makfax News Agency covering judiciary topics.

He is one of the authors of the Handbook for disinformation and critical thinking for non-formal education in the country, and also is member of Media Judicial Council. He has participated in a lot of professional trainings and workshops for independent media, media literacy, fact checking and investigative journalism.

He has been part from a group for analysis of the media coverage and media monitoring program. Magleshov was awarded by the mission of EU in North Macedonia for an investigative story.