Author: birnEU

The training course was held at AAB college in the Ferizaj municipality.

The course was divided into two sessions, one led by Drita Hajdari, a prosecutor at the Kosovo Special Prosecution, and the second by Kreshnik Gashi, editor of the TV programme ‘Justice in Kosovo’.

Hajdari described the history of Islamic extremism over the years and how extremist Islamic ideology made its way to Kosovo. She further described Kosovo’s national strategy for the years 2015-2020 and how the prosecution continues to do a lot of work within the framework of the national strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism.

She pointed out the importance of youth cooperation in reporting suspected cases of radicalisation, and the importance of regional cooperation for preventing violent extremism.

Gashi engaged in a more in-depth conversation with the participants and addressed questions on radicalisation through social media, monitoring of debates on social media, and the methods of reporting cases of terrorism.

According to Gashi, in order to prevent radicalisation through social media, a debate around extremist ideologies should be fostered in order to provide a counter-narrative to extremism.

The course was organised as part of the project ‘With Participatory Democracy for a Kosovo without Radicalisation’, funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, GCERF.

In the Kosovo municipality of Podujevo, BIRN Kosovo held the third segment of its series of debates discussing the findings of BIRN Kosovo’s audit report monitoring project on Monday, October 28, analysing reports published by the National Audit Office concerning the country’s municipalities.

The results of BIRN’s monitoring and analysis were published and discussed in an open debate with more than 30 participants from the municipality, the National Audit Office and civil society. The debate was streamed live on BIRN’s anti-corruption platform KALLXO.com.

Visar Prebreza, BIRN Kosovo’s Managing Director, gave a brief presentation on the project and the findings.

According to Prebreza, the procurement sector has seen continuous violations during the last four years of audit reports. He recalled that the municipality received a large number of recommendations, but its level of implementation of these recommendations was not satisfactory.

Compared to other ministries or independent agencies, he said, municipalities are less successful in their implementation of the Audit Office’s recommendations.

Prebreza highlighted the positive opinion issued by the Audit Office in its emphasis of what mattered for the Municipality of Podujevo. However, he added, there have also been cases of failure to register municipal property.

Deputy Mayor of Podujevo Nexhmi Rudari said they were aware of the recommendations of the Audit Office, but circumstances faced by the institution had prevented their implementation.

“Many of the recommendations have been partially implemented, some of them fully implemented – but we have to say that a large part of them have not been implemented,” Rudari said. “It is not a lack of will but rather circumstances that have made their implementation impossible,” he added.

During the debate, a representative from the National Audit Office, Ilir Salihu, discussed the importance of this kind of meeting, saying that they help address the unsatisfactory standards of implementation of recommendations by Kosovo municipalities.

“The overall level of implementation of the Audit Office’s recommendations at Kosovo institutional level is around 40 per cent – while municipalities are around 10 per cent. Audit reports aim to present the most accurate picture of public spending,” he said.

Following keynote speakers and discussion of the analysis from BIRN Kosovo, time was devoted to an open discussion and participants answered questions from the audience.

Beside providing an avenue to discuss implementation of recommendations by the Audit’s Office, the debates are also an opportunity for BIRN to record promises made both by the General Auditor and the Municipality of Podujevo – to be followed-up through Kallxo.com’s fact-checking platform, Krypometer.

The debate was organised within the framework of the project, “Support civil society to increase public oversight and accountability of Kosovo public institutions”, which is funded by the British Embassy in Pristina.

This specific activity is organised as part of the component looking into the compliance of targeted institutions with the recommendations of the Auditor General’s Reports.

Similar debates will be held across other municipalities in Kosovo, with the aim of presenting BIRN Kosovo’s analysis of the success of the implementation recommendations made by the Auditor. Every debate will be held during municipal assemblies of the municipalities in question, and will be live streamed by BIRN Kosovo.

The project analyses reports produced by the National Audit Office on the country’s municipalities.

Results from BIRN’s monitoring and analysis were discussed in a debate, with more than 50 participants from the Ferizaj municipality, the National Audit Office and civil society. The debate was livestreamed on BIRN’s anti-corruption platform KALLXO.com.

Visar Prebreza, BIRN Kosovo’s managing editor, said that of the 29 recommendations given to municipal officials by the National Audit Office, only five have been implemented by the Ferizaj municipality.

“In 2016, 29 recommendations were given, and in 2017 only five out of the 29 were addressed,” Prebreza said.

“The auditor’s recommendations should be taken more seriously by the municipality of Ferizaj, starting with the mayor,” Prebreza added.

Deputy mayor Naim Ferati acknowledged that there have been delays in implementing the recommendations but stated that “after this meeting, I will address all of the recommendations from BIRN and the National Auditor to see where we are”.

Following the discussion of the analysis, there was an open discussion and questions from the audience.

The debate was organised as part of a project entitled ‘Support Civil Society to Increase Public Oversight and Accountability of Kosovo Public Institutions’, funded by the British embassy in Pristina.

Similar debates will be held in other municipalities in Kosovo to present BIRN Kosovo’s analysis of the implementation of the auditor’s recommendations.

Each debate will be held in municipal assembly buildings and will be livestreamed by BIRN Kosovo.

At the debates, promises made both by the General Auditor and the municipal will be recorded and then followed up and fact-checked by BIRN Kosovo’s fact-checking tool Krypometer.

The workshop was attended by ten representatives from local media in Gjilan, Viti and Kamenica, who were eager to gain knowledge based on the experiences of the BIRN Kosovo team represented by Kreshnik Gashi, the anchor of the ‘Justice in Kosovo’ television programme, Visar Prebreza, editor at Kallxo.com, and Labinot Leposhtica, a coordinator in BIRN Kosovo’s law office.

In the opening session, Gashi shared his knowledge and experience on fact verification and secure reporting, as well as thorough research methods based on International Fact-Checking Networkstandards and research based on reports from whistleblowers.

Prebreza meanwhile elaborated on the reporting conducted through Kallxo’s fact-checking platform ‘Krypometer’ (‘Truth-o-Meter’). He explained how to use corruption reporting platforms and information from citizens to investigate major cases of corruption and organized crime, as well as how to build journalistic reports by monitoring audit reports.

Finally, Leposhtica trained the participants on legal matters, including journalistic ethics, privacy issues, copyright and protection of sources.

Representatives of the local media successfully completed the training session and were provided with certificates.

The course was held at the American Corner in the southern Kosovo city of Prizren.

The course was divided into 11 sessions, covering topics including reporting and monitoring, building public credibility for media that fight corruption, fact-checking, public speaking and television reporting.

The director of Internews Kosova, Faik Ispahiu, who specialises in providing training on broadcast media management, marketing, and TV production, as well as in developing commercial media strategies, used KALLXO.com, BIRN Kosovo’s online anti-corruption platform, as a case study during a session on the use of whistleblowers to fight corruption.

He spoke to participants about building public credibility for media reporting on corruption, as well as BIRN Kosovo’s television programmes ‘Life in Kosovo’ and ‘Justice in Kosovo’, and on how to transition print media to become online platforms.

KALLXO.com’s editor, Visar Prebreza, spoke to participants about types of reporting and monitoring, including how to use social media to source stories and how to identify fake news.

He also elaborated on the reporting done through Kallxo’s fact-checking platform ‘Krypometer’ (‘Truth-o-Meter’), using corruption reporting platforms and information from citizens to investigate major cases of corruption and organised crime, as well as monitoring public procurement and building journalistic reports based on monitoring audit reports.

KALLXO.com law office coordinator Labinot Leposhtica also led a session on media regulations and ethics, including ethical reporting and the self-regulation of print and digital media, as well as basic court reporting.

To round out the training, Leposhtica and Prebreza held an intensive workshop for the participants, providing them with in-depth knowledge on how to access the Public Procurement of Kosovo website and address practical issues in procurement and auditing using cases from court and public procurement monitoring.

During the first day of training, talks were given by Kallxo.com editor Visar Prebreza and BIRN Kosovo’s law office coordinator, Labinot Leposhtica.

Sharing his experiences at BIRN with the students, Prebreza highlighted the importance of facts during research, giving specific examples from his work.

He also elaborated on the reporting done through Kallxo’s fact-checking platform ‘Krypometer’ (‘Truth-o-Meter’), which uses the corruption reporting platform and information from citizens to investigate major cases of corruption and organised crime.

Leposhtica meanwhile talked through some of the legal issues the students might face in the future, discussing ethics in journalism, privacy issues, copyright and the protection of sources.

On the second day, students had the opportunity to gain insights from Kreshnik Gashi, anchor of the TV programme ‘Justice in Kosovo’.

Gashi elaborated on how to establish facts, and ensure secure reporting in journalism, as well as outlining thorough research methods based on International Fact-Checking Network standards and research based on reports from whistleblowers.

In the second part of the day, the students had the chance to see some of the ‘doorstep’ interviews that have been conducted by Kallxo.com journalists. After watching some examples of such interviews, the students practiced them with their colleagues.

Journalism students on the course were provided with certificates to demonstrate the knowledge and experience gained from the three lectures. This training was provided by the Civil Society Program for Albania and Kosovo, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and managed by the Kosovo Foundation for Civil Society (KCSF) in partnership with Partners Albania for Change and Development (PA).