Mirna Buljugic, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH), participated in the ODIHR Trial Monitoring annual meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, at the end of April 2017.
The objective of the meeting was to share good practice and talk about challenges to trial monitoring around the world.
Buljugic presented BIRN BiH’s work at a session entitled Access to Information, talking about challenges journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing trying to access audio and video material from court hearings, court files (indictments and verdicts) and interviews with legal professionals.
BIRN BiH’s campaign ‘Stop Censorship on War Crimes’ was shared as an example of good advocacy campaign that successfully encouraged people to put pressure on judicial institutions to change practices and rules forbidding the public from getting relevant information on war crime trials.
At least one story promises to read like a crime thriller. Others will delve deep into corruption, public health and human rights. All involve meticulous research and the highest standards of cross-border reporting.
In its eleventh year, the programme kicked off with an opening seminar in Vienna for 10 new fellows from across the Balkan region.
Chosen from more than 130 applications, the fellows are from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.
This year’s theme is change, giving the mid-career journalists broad scope to tackle issues ranging from the rise of populism and historical revisionism to Europe’s refugee and migrant crisis.
“I already had a look at the topics that you have proposed and I’m really glad to see that you indeed have taken several of the most pressing topics that the Balkans have,” Ulrike Lunacek, Austrian MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament, told fellows in a video message made for the seminar.
“It’s about environmental issues, family issues, women’s rights, LGBTi, refugee discrimination issues, but it’s also about rising nationalism.”
Ulrike Lunacek, Vice-President of the European Parliament welcoming 2017 fellows
At the ERSTE Foundation’s gleaming new headquarters, participants received practical tips on international standards in researching, reporting and structuring long-form stories that will be published at the end of the year in local languages as well as English and German.
A key goal was to refine story proposals based on initial applications. Individual editorial sessions were led by BFJE programme Editor Timothy Large, Balkan Insight Editor-in-Chief Gordana Igric and BFJE Programme Manager Dragana Zarkovic. The aim was to help fellows sharpen the focus of their stories and develop research and travel plans.
Timothy Large takes over as BFJE editor from Matt Robinson, now Reuters special correspondent for Central and Eastern Europe. Timothy was previously director of media development at the Thomson Reuters Foundation and editor-in-chief of global news services for the philanthropic arm of Reuters. Over coming months, he will work closely with fellows as they research, report and write their stories.
The seminar also included a visit to the newsroom of the Austrian daily derStandard, media partner of the programme; a multimedia and mobile journalism workshop run by Gunther Müller and David Klein from Forum Journalismus und Medien; and a presentation on press freedom, defamation and journalists’ legal rights by Barbara Trionfri, executive director of the International Press Institute.
Gabrijela Vukicevic joined BIRN Serbia as finance officer in October 2016.
For 15 years previous to that, she worked as finance/administrative officer at NVO MicroFinS and MicroFinS-DBS. MicroFinS collaborated with the UNHCR (UN refugee agency), SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and CWS (Church World Service).
Lada Vucenovic joined the BIRN Serbia team in January 2010.
As project coordinator, she handles all operational and project matters in the field of media policy and good governance, and also works as a researcher.
She graduated from Faculty of Organizational Sciences at the University of Belgrade, where she majored in marketing management and public relations. Before joining BIRN, she volunteered at several different organisations: Executive Group, ABS Holdings and Group for Security (G4S).
The Annual Report presents the entire range of BIRN’s activities across the region from the perspectives of visibility, reach and impact.
In 2016, members of the BIRN network operated in a challenging environment which was marked by authoritarian tendencies among political elites, political turmoil, economic difficulties and deteriorating media freedoms. Political and financial pressure on the media, the refugee crisis, the long-term economic crisis and accompanying high unemployment, and high levels of corruption are just some problems that countries in the region have experienced.
Through investigative, analytical and specialised coverage of underreported topics such as war crimes cases, the flow of public money, cases of potential or verified corruption, problems within justice systems, media freedoms and ethics, and security issues etc., BIRN continued to play an important role in providing people in the Balkans with access to accurate information.
The Annual Report presents the entire range of BIRN’s activities across the region from the perspectives of visibility, reach and impact.
In this way, we show the scope and significance of the Network’s endeavours: for audiences in the countries of the region and beyond, media professionals, academics, policy makers (in the region and in international organisations), for the civil society sector, and for vulnerable groups. BIRN journalists and film-makers have also received awards for their work in their respective countries and internationally, and the report provides information about this.
BIRN Macedonia – past programme
Through the “Project For Investigative Journalism And Cooperation Between Media And Civil Society” BIRN Macedonia works with NGO representatives and journalists to build and foster efficient links between media and non-governmental organizations with a goal for greater visibility of the NGOs and creating environment for production of more relevant investigative stories.
Summary
The project aims to support the investigative journalists with financial support and providing a room for publishing the stories. The Project is part of the USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia and is implemented in partnership with Center for Civil Communications, Senter for investigative journalism - SCOOP Macedonia, TV magazine KOD and daily newspaper KOHA.
The project which was launched in December 2012 has several different elements including fostering links between journalists and NGOs, training of NGO representatives, supporting the journalists to investigate and publishing their stories.
Macedonia’s media are troubled with many challenges. Closure of independent and critical media, increasing pressure and control of the government over numerous media outlets and rising trend of self-censorship have led to a journalism guided by political and business interests of media owners, limited space for objective reporting and have almost wiped out investigative reporting. At the same time, professional journalism standards are largely ignored.
With this project BIRN Macedonia promotes and tries to strengthen the relation between the media and NGOs by detecting the priority issues of common interest. Ten debates with different topic between journalists and NGOs are included. The goal is the participants to detect the topics that need to be challenged.
BIRN Macedonia supports the investigative journalism by opening eight calls for investigative stories. About 40 journalists will be awarded with financial support for in-depth investigation on specific topic. The selected journalists will be provided with mentors from BIRN and partner organizations staff who will guide the journalists through the investigative process.
The Project provides publishing the stories written by the selected journalists on a separate web site designed for the Project but also on other media. The web site will not serve only for publishing the stories but also as a data base of NGOs and experts in various fields so the journalists and NGO representatives can check the needed information and contacts.
BIRN Macedonia together with its partners will provide training and expertise for the NGOs and media through 10 workshops so they create common language, but also to train the NGOs to get bigger visibility in the media.
Together with the KOD TV magazine 12 investigative programs will be created in the framework of the Project.
The project was initiated by BIRN Macedonia in 2012 and was supported by USAID.
Information Sheet
Main Objective:
To bridge the current gap between journalists and non-governmental organizations on issues of public interest
To build operational and efficient partnerships between CSOs and media as base for more objective journalism, and more informed public.
Specific Objectives:
Establish partnership relations between media and CSOs that will enable a long- term cooperation, instead of one-off contacts on issues of public interest. Currently media tend to ignore or use the work of CSOs selectively, thus depriving the public of the big picture. At the same time, both media and CSO’s have not forged any strong ties or cooperation.
Achieve greater visibility of the work of CSOs and in turn greater media legitimacy; design a line of communication between media and CSOs, so CSOs can arm journalists with necessary reporting information in public interest helping their professional, fact-based, and objective information, resulting in more professional journalistic stories.
Support public interest journalism; By improving journalists’ skills, capacities, tools, information and offering financial resources for in depth and investigative reports, as well as room for publishing of their stories the project aims to create a pool of investigative journalists, create a web platform and contribute a significant number of reports on key issues.
Provide the public with better and more substantial information as base to make informed decisions (in their private lives, businesses and as members of the society), raise public awareness on key issues and stir debate.
Main Activities:
Detecting of media and CSOs common issues, through a series of public debates between journalists and CSOs representatives.
Research of the current media coverage of the detected common issues, through an in-depth monitoring of the way Macedonian media and journalists report those issues
Creating a common language for CSOs and media through 10 workshops for CSOs
Technical assistance to Macedonian journalists in reporting important issues on more professional, fact-based and objective way
Providing journalists and CSOs with a room for reporting for issues of common interest and for offering citizens important information to make right
Sharing information and news reporting materials with other Balkan countries
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania held a two-day training session on the April 29-30 in the city of Durres, which aimed to strengthen the media’s role in exposing illicit political party financing.
The training session was part of a project entitled ‘Strengthening the Media’s Role in Transparency of Political Party Financing’, supported by the National Democratic Institute, NDI, in Albania and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
About 25 journalists from Tirana and across Albania participated in the two days of training, which provided a guide to the basic methods and techniques of investigative journalism as well as an overview of political parties’ finances in Albania.
The training aimed to strengthen the skills of mid-career journalists to look closely at systemic issues of illicit financing of political parties and conflict of interest, with a special focus on the red flags raised by Central Election Commission reports.
Presentations were given by political scientist and Tirana University professor Afrim Krasniqi, the head of the Albania Science Institute Aranita Brahaj, the deputy head of the Institute of Authorized Chartered Auditors of Albania, Eleonora Olli, NDI advisor Vildan Plepi and BIRN Albania Editor-in-Chief Besar Likmeta.
The training will be followed by a call for participating journalists on analytical stories related to political party finances, with a special focus on the June 18 parliamentary elections.
This year’s BIRN Summer School will be held in the stunning Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik from August 20-26.
The summer school will bring together some of the world’s best journalists and trainers for a six-day programme.
Reporters will have the opportunities to learn cutting-edge investigative skills and enjoy the delights of the Adriatic Sea.
Reuters editor Blake Morrison, three times a finalist for the Pulitzer investigative award, has been appointed lead trainer.
He will be joined by multiple-award-winning reporter/editor Miranda Patrucic from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Henk van Ess, an expert in Open Source Investigative Journalism, plus others.
During the sessions, journalists will learn how to dig for data, convince difficult sources to talk, transform their research into sparking prose and harness the power of video.
All participants will have the opportunity to apply for the Investigative Story Fund andthe three best story ideas will be awarded with funding ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 euros.
The location isMlini, a pretty fishing village located 10 kilometres south of Dubrovnik, the so-called ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’.
It offers a quiet setting with stunning beaches and excellent seafood, while Dubrovnik itself is internationally renowned for its fascinating history and breathtaking architecture.
Participants will have the chance to enjoy the idyllic surroundings while honing their investigative journalism skills.
Three BIRN stories have been named as finalists for this year’s Investigative award by Independent Journalistic Association of Serbia in the categories for electronic [TV and radio], print and on-line media.
The jury, composed of Danica Vucenic, journalist from Insajder, Milorad Ivanovic, editor-in-chief of Newsweek Serbia, Predrag Blagojevic, editor-in-chief of online portal Juzne vesti and Pedja Obradovic, producer at TV N1, chose the following BIRN stories:
BIRN Serbia journalist Jelena Veljkovic wrote on how Serbia’s Property Directorate claimed not to know that an exclusive restaurant had been opened in a part of the Belgrade Cooperative building, which the directorate leased to the “Belgrade on water company, refusing to answer whether it believed this use of public property was in accordance with the law.
The article was published in the weekly Vreme.
“Flatland without Birds?”, a documentary about illegal hunting in Serbia is nominated for the electronic media category.
The film, by journalist Dragan Gmizic, co-produced by BIRN Serbia and Greenfield Productions, examines how hunting rare turtle doves and quail is organised in Serbia and asks how and whether it can be controlled. The documentary was aired on TV N1, TV CG and Al Jazeera Balkans.
The story revealed how thousands of assault rifles, mortar shells, rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons, and heavy machine guns have poured into the Middle East from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. The same story is also among three finalists for the Czech Journalism Prize, the best-known Czech media award.
This year, 75 journalists applied for the award given by the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, NUNS, and the US embassy in Serbia.
The award ceremony will take place at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade on May 10 at 5.30pm.
BIRN journalists have won this prize for the last four years.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania on April 26 presented its newly published national report, Local Government Under the Lens of Freedom of Information: A Comparative Monitoring of Transparency Indicators Online and On the Ground 2016-2017.
The report was published as part of BIRN Albania’s project Strengthening the Local Partnership between Media and Civil Society.
The project, funded by Leviz Albania and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, aims to strengthen the public’s pressure mechanisms on local government institutions and increase transparency by strengthening cooperation between journalists, civil society groups and grassroots organisations.
The report contains the results on the transparency of the 61 local government units in Albania, based on 50 indicators, evaluated in both 2016 and 2017, tracing the progress made by local municipalities in the implementation of the freedom of information and public consultation laws.
According to the monitoring data, these indicators were realised by 46 per cent of local municipalities in 2017, with the majority of the municipalities failing to realize half of the monitored indicators.
The figure represents a modest improvement of three per cent from 2016, when the transparency level was 43 per cent.
The new data collected through the report in 2017 shows that as in 2016, local municipalities in Albania are more transparent when it comes to the ‘freedom of information’ and ‘municipal councils’ category/indicator, and less transparent on a national level in ‘financial transparency’ and ‘legislation’.
The monitoring of municipalities for the report was carried out in February 2017 and June 2016 by a network of local journalists across Albania.
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