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BIRN Holds Investigative Journalism Training for Public Broadcasters

Thirteen journalists from public broadcasters in the Western Balkans met in Belgrade on Friday for the start of an investigative reporting workshop organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.

A three-day regional investigative reporting workshop for journalists from public broadcasters in the Western Balkans, organised by BIRN Hub, started in Belgrade on Friday with a visit to Radio Television of Serbia, RTS.

The workshop is a part of the project “Technical Assistance to Public Service Media in the Western Balkans”, financed by the European Union, which aims to revitalise the region’s public broadcasting sector and bring new confidence to the key stakeholders involved.

EU ambassador to Serbia Sem Fabrizi, who delivered the opening address of the training, highlighted that media freedom is of fundamental importance to a democratic society.

He noted that public service broadcasters play a special role in responding to public interest for information in today’s challenging media environment.

“The media landscape is changing – we now have social networks, fake news; these elements call into question the freedom of the media,” Fabrizi said, adding that public service broadcasters are crucial in today’s media sector.

Dragan Bujosevic, General Director of RTS, stated during his address at the opening ceremony, that he disagrees with the term investigative journalism, but for a specific reason:

“Journalism is always investigative… there is no other type,” he said.

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BIRN Macedonia’s Director, Ana Petruseva, who was among the trainers for the workshop, noted: “We are seeing many challenges to investigative reporting today, and the role of public broadcasters is vitally important. Especially since we have less people in news rooms prepared to fight and look out for the public interest.”

She added that over the next three days, “we hope to give journalists tips, tricks and skills they can use to improve their reporting.”

Lead trainer Nils Hanson from the Swedish public broadcaster SVT said: “The need for investigative journalists has never been bigger than it is today,” stressing that “the work of an investigative journalist is very dangerous.”

He added that in Sweden there has been a revival of investigative journalism, with all TV stations having noticed that viewers demand it and are willing to pay for it.

The project, intended to train public broadcasters to produce increasingly pluralistic, independent and accountable content, is being led by the International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, together with BIRN, the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, the European Federation of Journalists, EFJ, the Austrian Public Broadcaster, ORF, and the Eurovision News Exchange for South-East Europe, ERNO.

Journalists Trained for Data Journalism in Montenegro

BIRN, CIN Montenegro and Monitor magazine organised a training course on data journalism for Montenegrin journalists on October 10 and 11 in Podgorica.

The training was held as part of the project Media Investigations: Stop to READ (Regional Environmental Acts of Devastation) which aims to strengthen investigative reporting in Montenegro.

Training topics included national and international databases and registries, their importance in investigative journalism and practical instructions on how to gather data and how to use them for writing stories; freedom of information laws and how to obtain data using them; tips and tricks for browsing, and using social networks in data journalism.

The training was held by Milka Tadic-Mijovic (CIN Montenegro), Dusica Tomovic and Jelena Cosic (BIRN Hub), and Slobodan Georgiev (BIRN Serbia).

The project was funded by the EU Delegation in Podgorica.

BIRN Albania Opens Call for Organised Crime Investigations

BIRN Albania launched a call for investigative stories on organised crime themes on October 10.

BIRN is offering grants for three journalists to cover organised crime stories, as well as mentoring by experienced editors.

The call is part of the project ‘Strengthening Media’s Role in the Fight Against Corruption’, financed by the Open Society Foundation in Albania.

The project’s aim is to strengthen reporting on corruption in the country through cooperation with civil society, in order to contribute to a more informed citizenry that is engaged in the democratic process.

Three journalists will be awarded grants to cover their expenses while conducting investigations and writing their stories on organised crime.

The journalists will have around three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, and will also have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as mentors to guide them through the process of writing in accordance with BIRN standards.

The call only applies to journalists from Albania and closes on October 30.

Click here for more information (in Albanian) about the application procedure.

Click here to download the application (in Albanian).

BIRN Kosovo Holds Prevention of Violent Extremism Training

BIRN Kosovo held a training course for law students in Ferizaj, Kosovo, on October 5 entitled ‘Forms of Violent Extremism and Reporting on Terrorism Cases’.

Key speakers were Drita Hajdari, prosecutor at the Kosovo Special Prosecution, and Kreshnik Gashi, editor of the TV programme, Justice in Kosovo. It was held at AAB College in Ferizaj.

The course aimed to give students the opportunity to discuss cases in which young people from Kosovo were involved in terrorism and terrorist groups, as well as to find out how to prevent radicalisation.

Hajdari and Gashi engaged in an in-depth conversation with the participants and addressed questions on terrorism in Kosovo and methods of reporting cases of terrorism.

Hajdari said that the prosecution, within the framework of the national strategy on the prevention of violent extremism and radicalisation that leads to terrorism, is doing a lot of work on countering terrorism.

She called for a greater cooperation from young people in reporting suspected cases of radicalisaton.

Gashi said that the media in Kosovo is doing its best in reporting cases through investigations. He also noted that the impact of media in combating terrorism is crucial, so outlets must take care not to publish unreliable or false news that misinforms the population.

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

BIRN Kosovo is planning to organise similar events in Pristina, Mitrovica, Gjilan and Kacanik.

BIRN Kosovo’s Human Rights Awards Announced

On October 4, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo, in cooperation with The Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC), presented awards for three best journalistic pieces on TV, print or online media as part of its Human Rights Reporting Award Competition.

The initiative is intended to boost the coverage of human rights issues and help to set new standards for media reporting in the sphere.

Venera Cocaj and Matko Bulent won the first prize for a story that dealt with one of the least discussed topics in the country and concerned one of the most marginalised groups, the LGBT community, in a documentary “The Sky is Turning” produced by Kosovo 2.0.

Adriana Thaci-Mehmeti from KTV won second prize for a story about the rights of elderly people within the family and in retirement homes.

Besa Kalaja from PreportR and Kaltrina Rexhepi from RTK shared the third prize. Kalaja’s story dealt with the lack of institutional care for the elderly, while Rexhepi created a documentary that looks into the issue of early marriages.

BIRN Kosovo Holds Discussion on Ombudsperson’s Role

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo and the Centre for Advocacy Democracy and Culture, ACDC, organised a discussion in Peja/Pec on October 2 about the role of the Ombudsperson with regards to issues of public interest.

This discussion was held as a part of the OmbudsWatch project, which aims to educate the public about the role and responsibilities of the Ombudsperson, as well as about their right to contact the Ombudsperson’s office about matters of public importance.

The discussion, which took place at the Jusuf Gërvalla cinema in Peja/Pec, was attended by students, journalists and civil society activists.

The key speakers were Kreshnik Gashi, editor and moderator of the TV programme Justice in Kosovo, and Meral Tejeci, senior legal advisor at the Ombudsperson’s office.

Both Gashi and Tejeci, addressed the legal obligations of the Ombudsperson to respond to citizens’ requests, the functions of the Ombudsperson’s office, people’s legal rights to submit complaints, and access to public documents, among other issues.

The discussion was the last to take place in the framework of the OmbudsWatch project, and participants were given pamphlets as a guide to making enquiries at the Ombudsperson’s office.

BIRN Announces Funding for Monitoring Public Finances in Kosovo

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, in the framework of Balkan Monitoring Public Finance Project, has announced a public call for the submission of project proposals within the European Commission’s Civil Society Facility and Media Programme 2014-2015: Support to Regional Thematic Networks of Civil Society Organisations, ‘CSOs as Equal Partners in Monitoring Public Finances’.

The proposed projects should fulfill one or more of several priorities:

Empower the CSOs to strengthen their knowledge in the area of public finance, monitor public finance, provide policy proposals and participate in policy processes, raise public awareness, facilitate discussion with political actors and other relevant stakeholders, communicate and advocate for better accountability and transparency in the area of public finance.
Support media to communicate and inform the public on the issues or policy processes related to public finance.
Encourage experts to conduct research and baseline studies on specific topics related to public finance.
Create cooperation platforms or support networking among stakeholders to create transparent and accountable policy and decision-making processes in the area of public finances.

The call for proposals focuses on four general topics of public finances including public debt, public-private partnerships, tax justice and public infrastructure, transparency, rule of law, good governance, anti-corruption, economic growth, including citizens and CSOs in the budgeting process, public finance education and the monitoring and oversight of public institutions and tax reforms.

Funds will be allocated to those civil society organisations whose projects contribute to resolving one or more of the above priorities and meet quality criteria and other conditions.

Relevant information as well as an electronic version of the application package can be obtained from: http://wings-of-hope.ba/balkan-monitoring-public-finance/ public-call-for-csosngos-inthe-field-of-public-finances.

Applicants can submit their applications in Albanian, Serbian and English.

Completed applications with the necessary documentation must be send via email to [email protected].

The deadline for submitting applications is November 1 at noon.

Kosovo Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Grants Bursaries

Ten applicants have been granted a fellowship bursary within the framework of the Kosovo Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Programme.

The Fellowship is a six-month opportunity for journalists to advance their skills. The programme is supported by the European Union Office in Kosovo and implemented by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Association of Kosovo Journalists.

The recipients of the bursaries will conduct research on issues such as public spending, local governance, public procurement, environment, energy, healthcare, culture, education, media financing, human rights and inter-ethnic cooperation and write an in-depth story based on their findings.

The Kosovo Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Programme is based on the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, which has been running since 2007.

Click here to read more.

Facebook Removes Pages of Rightists Investigated by BIRN, BBC

Facebook has taken down at least 14 pages identified in a BIRN and BBC collaboration as linked to the Knights Templar International, a ‘Christian militant’ organisation active in the Balkans.

The social media giant has removed a network of pages, whose followers total millions, tied to the Knights Templar International, KTI, BIRN reported on Thursday.

KTI – which calls itself “a living shield and sword for the defence of Christian communities and the upholding of Christian principles” – has boasted about how its vast network of social media pages helped to elect Donald Trump as US President and swing the UK referendum on leaving the European Union.

The organisation has attracted controversy for its hard-line views on Muslim immigration to Europe and donation of equipment to so-called “migrant hunters” in Bulgaria and to Kosovo Serbs preparing for confrontation with Kosovo’s mainly Muslim Albanian majority.

In May this year, BIRN and the BBC published the fruits of their collaboration into the British nationalists operating in the Balkans.

BIRN’s investigation highlighted the links between British anti-immigration hardliner Jim Dowson and a web of patriotic sites, including the KTI, which are becoming increasingly active in Serbia.

The BBC produced television and radio documentaries focusing on Dowson, “the invisible man of Britain’s far right”, and his activities in Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Kosovo. Read it here: Is this Britain’s most influential far-right activist?

These collaborations are part of BIRN’s Paper Trail to Better Governance programme, funded by the Austrian Development Agency.

BIRN Conference Highlights War Crimes Cooperation Problems

Cooperation on war crimes cases between prosecutors’ offices in former Yugoslav countries happens rarely despite agreements between the states, said participants at a major regional conference organised by BIRN.

Regional cooperation between prosecutors’ offices in former Yugoslav countries is beset by problems, despite the protocols that states have signed agreeing to collaborate on war crimes cases, said speakers at a conference organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Sarajevo on Wednesday.

“The cooperation exists in theory, but it is non-existent in practice,” Aleksandar Kontic, legal officer at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, told the conference entitled ‘After the ICTY: Regional Cooperation, Accountability, Truth and Justice in the Former Yugoslavia’.

Kontic said that the chief prosecutor at the Hague court, Serge Brammertz, has reported countries in the region to UN Security Council on several occasions due to their non-cooperation on war crime cases.

He also suggested that part of the problem was that all countries in the region still divide suspects into two categories – “our heroes and their criminals”.

The acting chief prosecutor at the Bosnian state prosecution, Gordana Tadic, said her institution wants to improve regional cooperation because some of the suspects being sought for prosecution in Bosnia and Herzegovina are living in Serbia and Croatia.

“It is important for war crime perpetrators not to remain unpunished no matter where they are,” Tadic said.

In 2013, the prosecutor’s offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia signed protocols enabling the free exchange of war crime cases, investigations and case documents. Despite the fact that several cases have been exchanged and processed, very few against high-ranking suspects have been successfully transferred to neighbouring countries’ jurisdictions, while numerous suspects have never been arrested or had cases brought against them.

Jurica Ilic of the County Prosecution in Zagreb pointed out that Croatia has certain legal differences that complicate cooperation with other former Yugoslav states.

“There is a problem related to existence of different standards in individual countries, which makes it impossible to take over complete cases,” Ilic said.

Croatian law does not recognise the concept of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’, and the Croatian government has ordered the country’s Justice Ministry, when reviewing cooperation requests from Bosnia, to refuse to act on any which “violate state interests” – meaning those in which Croatia is named as a participant in a joint criminal enterprise during the Bosnian conflict.

Paul Flynn, prosecution manager at the EU’s rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, said meanwhile that cooperation between Pristina and Belgrade on war crimes cases was almost non-existent.

“Without that, I think we shall have no justice at all,” Flynn warned.

Merita Gashi, an adviser to the Kosovo chief state prosecutor, said that Pristina and Belgrade have no legal cooperation at all because of Serbia’s refusal to recognise Kosovo’s independence.

“There are around 13,000 victims of the military conflict in Kosovo. Victims are tired of waiting. They are beginning to lose confidence,” Gashi said.

Ivan Jovanovic, an expert in international law, told the conference that former Yugoslav countries had to accelerate cooperation because as the years pass, suspects, victims and witnesses are all getting older.

“We are witnessing that victims are dying and many suspects are dying,” Jovanovic warned.

The conference continues on Thursday.

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