Author: Eleni Stamatoukou

Summary:

Corruption remains one of the main obstacles to strengthening the rule of law across the Western Balkans, undermining democratic governance, public trust, and fair access to public services. Politicised decision-making, weak oversight, and limited accountability mechanisms continue to create space for abuse of power, particularly where public resources and appointments intersect with narrow political or private interests.

In Montenegro, corruption continues to affect public confidence in institutions and the credibility of reforms. Progress on transparency and accountability remains uneven, and civil society and independent media have repeatedly flagged gaps between formal commitments and practice. For example, reporting has highlighted how the state still lacks key transparency tools in areas like public procurement and access to data that would enable meaningful scrutiny and oversight. Reporting has also underlined the importance of ensuring that anti-corruption bodies have the independence and resources needed to function effectively.

In Kosovo, corruption and clientelism remain persistent challenges, particularly in areas such as public contracting and institutional governance, where accountability mechanisms are often perceived as weak or inconsistently applied. Balkan Insight’s country governance profiling similarly points to ongoing issues linked to corruption risks and the need for stronger transparency and oversight in public decision-making.

Across both contexts, education, healthcare, and the environment remain sectors vulnerable to politicisation, conflicts of interest, and misuse of public funds. Addressing these risks requires stronger cooperation between citizens, civil society, and local media, so that community concerns translate into credible evidence, public scrutiny, and pressure for institutional follow-up.

This initiative in a broader sense aims to contribute to free speech, open debate and free sharing of information, reducing corruption, all forms of organised crime including drug and human trafficking, influence from hostile entities and countries, creating a more favourable democratic and business environment.

Donor:

United States Department of State – Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

Main Objectives:

1. Empower local media, civil society and citizens to be able to identify corruption in their communities, report it to responsible authorities and hold institutions accountable.
2. Strengthen civil society’s and media’s capacities to report and counter corruption at national and local level to influence changes, with a special emphasis on the environment, education and healthcare
3. Improve policies and/or laws through constructive engagement between civil society, government(s) and/or the private sector

Main Activities:

1.1: Conduct needs assessments of local CSOs and media;

1.2: Implement tailor-made trainings and mentoring sessions;

1.3: Develop and implement a digital tool for citizens’ reporting corruption.

2.1: Provide sub-grants to local CSOs and media in Montenegro and Kosovo.

2.2: Develop and publish anti-corruption stories based on inputs from citizens;

2.3: Develop and publish anti-corruption policy papers based on the needs of local communities;

2.4: Promote anti-corruption campaigns through mainstream media, social media, partner websites and BIRN platforms.

2.5: Provide sub-grants to independent journalists in Montenegro and Kosovo for anti-corruption content production.

2.6: Support national and cross-border investigative journalism on corruption across the Western Balkans.

3.1: Organise workshops between media and local CSOs to strengthen cooperation and joint action.

3.2: Organise anti-corruption forums gathering CSOs, media, institutions, the private sector and international stakeholders.

3.3: Implement community events linked to concrete anti-corruption activities and local advocacy efforts.

Target Groups:

Civil society organisations, media outlets, journalists, independent journalists, local and central institutions, justice-sector actors, private-sector representatives and citizens of Montenegro, Kosovo and the wider Western Balkans.

Main implementer:

BIRN HUB

Partners:

Civic Alliance, Eos Tech Trust

Summary:

Although more than 20 years have passed since military conflicts in the Balkans ended, former Yugoslav countries have been slow to implement transitional justice mechanisms regarding human rights violations. In the past, stakeholders in the field of transitional justice in the Balkans were mainly focused on criminal justice, which had its foothold in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ITCY, and its successor, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. On completion of the work of the tribunals, domestic courts were to take over the prosecution of war crimes suspects.

However, the number of such trials is declining, and new indictments remain focused on low-ranking perpetrators. Although the few existing trials are noteworthy, and BIRN is closely monitoring and reporting on them, it is important to focus on other segments of transitional justice and link it with criminal justice efforts. In this context, when regional cooperation among local judicial institutions remains key to advancing accountability and ending impunity, BIRN aims to increase the awareness of the key stakeholders and the public about these processes.

Aside from ongoing trials, court archives are a repository of testimonies and evidence presented at earlier trials, which should be used to create fact-based narratives about wartime past. Archives from the ICTY and local courts in all former Yugoslav republics make this conflict one of the best documented in history. Unfortunately, however, most of the archives are not easily accessible; a considerable amount of essential material does not see the light of day.

BIRN has already implemented two projects supported by the Matra Regional Rule of Law Program. The first, “Accountability and regional cooperation in prosecuting war crimes in former Yugoslavia”, focused on criminal justice efforts and regional cooperation among local prosecutors’ offices. The second, “Shaping and promoting war crime trial narratives in the Western Balkans”, aimed to promote and strengthen criminal justice and guarantees of non-recurrence through regular, in-depth, high standard reporting on war crime trials, but also to promote and disseminate the archives of the international and local courts.

This project is a follow-up to these previous actions, expanding the work on court archives and memorialisation processes but also providing interested individuals with the opportunity to research archives from different and often complementary perspectives. This way, overall reconciliation processes are being reinforced by broadening the scope of independent professionals interested in becoming active in securing guarantees of non-recurrence.

Donor:

Matra Regional Rule of Law, The Netherlands

Main objectives:

Overall objective – Strengthen transitional justice mechanisms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo through enhanced usage of courts’ archives and professional reporting on war crimes.

Specific objective 1 – Reinforce the role of local artists, journalists, researchers and historians in becoming drivers of change in the overall reconciliation processes in the Balkan region.

Specific objective 2 – Improve intercultural dialogue and guarantees of non-recurrence through enhanced usage of court archives for the creation of multimedia fact-based content combating disinformation and denial caused by mainstream nationalistic narratives.

 Main Activities:

1. Produce and publish online 1,500 daily reports and analyses of war crime trials’ monitoring and transitional justice processes at all levels of the judiciary. The most important ones will be translated into BCMS and Albanian.
2. More than 3,000 republications in local, regional and international media outlets.
3. Publish at least five data-driven multimedia investigations into war crime cases.
4. Artists, journalists and historians to produce at least 10 small projects using international and local court archives.
5. Upload up to 20 multimedia pieces (essays, articles, photographs, video materials and archaeological research papers) to the Mass Graves Database.
6. Update Mass Grave Database with small-size mass graves locations
7. Hold one regional conference with up to 100 participants.
8. Hold one archive workshop for youth, mentor 10 young people to produce 20 oral history videos and hold five exchange programmes.
9. Develop tool for journalists, researchers, historians to more easily search court archives.

Target Groups:

Journalists, media, victims of war, researchers, historians, artists, academia

Main implementer:

BIRN Hub

Partners:

BIRN BiH

Project associates:

n/a

 

 

Summary: 

At the core of the project is the struggle for spheres of influence on the Eurasian continent, which has been going on between Russia, China and the EU for around a decade. Among other things, the project aims to identify Russian, Chinese and EU economic activities in these two broad regions, expose their consequences and downsides and inform the general public about its findings.

Political, economic and cultural ties with Russia, “inherited” from the Cold War, are still operative to varying degrees in these countries. However, the binding and integrating power of an economically weak, revisionist Russia, which relies above all on military strength, is clearly declining – or even driving away some former partners (Georgia).

The EU is meanwhile struggling to maintain its attractiveness because the demands that Brussels places on recipients of its financial support are high, and often involve lengthy reform and adjustment processes that often cause frustration and disappointment among partners (Western Balkans, Georgia).

China is the main beneficiary of this frustration. By offering to finance large investments in long-awaited infrastructure projects quickly and easily, it has found a willing audience in all the project countries. Although capital from China entails considerable risks and disadvantages for the recipient countries, the potential ecological, social and political consequences of cooperation with China in the recipient countries is barely publicly discussed.

Donor:

German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Main objectives:

Objective 1: Strengthen the capacities of independent and public media in project countries, as they are the main pillars of a critical public discourse on the effects of economic cooperation with China, Russia and the EU.

Objective 2: Increase skills and strengthen the capacities of independent and public media in project countries to continuously inform a broad public with high-quality reporting about the background and consequences of international economic cooperation.

Objective 3: Increase the capacities of the participating journalists to join cross-border projects and engage in data journalism.

Objective 4: Advance the reporting and publication of complex and data-heavy stories achieved through interesting and understandable preparation and strategic public relations campaigns with a wide audience.

Objective 5: Increase the capacities of participating journalists to become parts of international networks whose members support each other in researching and analysing global economic relationships.

Main Activities:

• Several offline meetings and trainings throughout the project’s duration (in Tbilisi, Belgrade, Tashkent, Podgorica, Sarajevo).
• Capacity-building measures/workshops online.
• Work on the database and an interactive map to present the spread of FDIs in the project countries.
• Production of country-based and cross-border long reads and investigative reports.
• Development of curricula for self-study.

 Target Groups:

• The direct target group includes 25 journalists from the seven project countries who deal with questions of international economic cooperation either as freelancers or as permanent employees.
• The indirect target group consists of two subgroups:
• group of experts and multipliers from NGOs and science(around 150 people involved in the project through further training measures, research and publications)
• general audience in the participating countries.

Main implementer:

n-ost

Partners:

BIRN Hub

Anhor.uz, Uzbekistan

JAM News, Georgia

 

 

 

 

Summary:

The Greater Internet Freedom (GIF) program is a four-year, global program that works to preserve an open, interoperable, reliable and secure Internet – and by extension, protect individuals, civil society organizations, media outlets and vulnerable groups who rely on it to realize fundamental freedoms. Through its dual objective of enhancing digital security for civil society and media and increasing citizen engagement in Internet government, GIF supports a diverse range of elements that impact Internet freedom.

The core of GIF’s approach centres on putting regional and local organizations at the forefront of this work. By enabling local and regional partners to lead this work, GIF helps local actors to build stronger trusted networks with peer organizations in their regions and around the world – and gain technical expertise from expert international organizations and share lessons learned.

Donor:

USAID

Main objectives:

 Increased Citizen Engagement in Internet Governance.

 Main Activities:

1. Working with local advocacy partners, to promote and advance policies to protect an open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet
2. Identify and build relationship with key stakeholders to safeguard internet freedom, IF, at regional and national levels
3. Expand and mainstream IF issues regionally, by training and mentoring human rights CSOs to integrate internet freedom advocacy into their advocacy programs.
4. Coordinating with local advocacy partners to analyze and respond to policies that risk closing civic space
5. Raise awareness among regulators, policy makers, service providers / private sector, and government actors on challenges and opportunities to uphold internet freedoms
6. Pursue locally and regionally relevant innovative approaches to spreading digital rights awareness, including working with universities to expand curricula; documentation of violations by both private and public sectors, etc.
7. Sharing best practice responses to the above approaches
8. Play a leading role in regional and international Internet governance forums

Target Groups:

• General public
• CSOs
• Journalists
• Human rights defenders

Regional partner for Western Balkans:

BIRN Hub

Implemented by:

Internews

Local Partners [2020-2024]:

BIRN Albania (Albania), Center Science and Innovation for Development (Albania), Youth Centre KVART (BiH), CA Why not (BiH), Levizja FOL (Kosovo), Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (Kosovo), Open Data Kosovo (Kosovo), Independent Journalism Center (Moldova), Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (N. Macedonia), IMPETUS (N. Macedonia), Metamorphosis (N. Macedonia), Da se zna (Serbia), Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (Serbia), Belgrade International Law Circle (Serbia). SHARE Foundation (Serbia).

 

Summary:

Media play an important role in the fragile balance of a post-conflict situation in a region characterized by linguistic and ethnic diversity: media can break down issues of regional, national and international significance into local contexts and idioms. They represent the most effective tool for holding local institutions to account. They also enjoy a potentially high level of trust in their local target group. However, when it comes to environmental and climate reporting in the media in the Balkans, systematic and competent reporting is not being done as yet.

 Journalists need more background knowledge on complex environmental and climate issues, especially related to EU regulations, which are relevant for the Balkans. Journalists need additional skills in research, data analysis and fact-checking as well as financial resources. Finally, as a result of a lack of resources, journalists lack opportunities for networking and cross-border cooperation with colleagues investigating similar topics in other countries. Connections to regional and pan-European networks would bring new perspectives and more sustainability for the journalists interested in these topics.

In response to these needs, the project is intended to carry out capacity on three levels:

• Participating journalists and media are aware of the importance of climate issues, in particular the cross-border nature of a problem that needs to be addressed collectively in the region. Through two workshops and a final event, their skills to investigate these topics will be strengthened and their networking possibilities improved. Finally, resources will be provided for the production of their stories during the project.
• Participating journalists and media will network with colleagues from other countries so that they can access a wealth of experience and know-how in the field of climate reporting.
• Participating journalists and media may better understand the special responsibility they have in raising public awareness on climate change. 

Donor:

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Main objectives: 

• To achieve more quality reporting on climate change and environmental issues through tailored workshops, production of stories, peer-to-peer learning and cross-border cooperation. Participating journalists and media will gain knowledge and resources to investigate different environmental issues.
• To integrate participants into different journalistic networks. Through their integration into the n-ost and BIRN network, participants will be better networked throughout Europe and enabled to produce transnational, collaborative work.
• To raise public awareness on climate change and the environment.

Main Activities:

• Project start, central strategy development
• Call for participation and selection of participants
• Kick-off meeting with all participants
• Selection of topics and trainers, planning workshops
• First workshop
• Follow-up workshop and development of stories
• Second workshop
• Follow-up second workshop and finalization of stories
• Publication of stories and videos about the stories
• Final event

Target Groups:

• 18 climate/environmental journalists
• 18 local/regional media
• Visitors to the final event
• Audience of publications/stories published within the project
• Viewers of the videos related to the publications/stories

Main implementer:

n-ost, Germany

 

 

 

 

Summary:

Despite its clear economic advantages and desirable political effects, collaborative cross-border journalism has not so far become a widespread form of foreign reporting – at least not in Europe. Although a range of European news publications, as well as services, collectively aggregate a “European” perspective from existing national news outlets, few European media actually produce content together, in so doing, developing a practice of collaboration and a common understanding of each other.

Although awareness of the need and the potential of more integrated productions and cooperation on European level is growing, regular and institutionalised cooperation between European news media is still too weak and underdeveloped to bring about structural change. The thresholds for many newsrooms to experiment with collaborative cross-border production methods and content formats, and establish permanent and lasting cross-border processes, are still too high.

Considering these challenges, the “European Focus” project is designed to bring together journalists (editors, reporters, correspondents) from ten news media outlets from across Europe to collaboratively create a weekly published newsletter, producing a total of 80 editions over the course of two years.

It will thereby promote a more diverse, independent and pluralistic media environment and foster intercultural dialogue. It aims to showcase and open a path for this “new normal” in European reporting practices in the everyday editorial routines of European newsrooms. The newsletter will be a truly European production, about topics that concern Europeans, written by authors from all over the continent, complementing and differentiating readers’ media consumption with multi-perspective, plural discourses that depict and shed light on a dynamic and integrated European reality.

It will strengthen European reporting by adding original European content to the media’s publication. It will contribute to the build-up of a European public sphere by reaching a European audience using the combined reach and expertise of the media consortium and building awareness of the value of plural and connected European perspectives.

It will also increase the value of journalistic work in the public eye, strengthening its perception as an essential pillar of European civil society.

Finally, the newsletter is a means to creating a resilient network of European media organisations, starting with the initial media partners in the consortium, but with the aim of continually expanding over time, and including more European media. This network will enable cross-border media partnerships and cultivate a new type of European reporting – one where news media work together to create international dialogue.

Donor:

European Union

Main objectives:

With its focus on collaborative journalism, the project pursues the following objectives:

1. Consolidate a pan-European network of ten European news media and build their capacity to work together on this new method and format of collaborative cross-border European reporting.
2. Increase the demand for collaborative cross-border methods, formats and contents of European reporting.
3. Publish 80 newsletters with segments in English, with at least 200 segments translated and republished into a minimum of nine languages by journalists from ten-plus countries, on 80 European topics, within 24 months.
4. Disseminate the newsletters via at least nine media platforms to reach a minimum of 10,000 subscribers, reaching 200,000 online article views via the newsletter’s website, with 1,000,000 indirectly reached via the republishing of content and 500,000 people reached with promoted newsletter content via the combined social media accounts of the consortium, within 24 months. 

Main Activities:  

1. Newsletter production
   • Hold European Topic Conference
   • Hold European authors’ meeting
   • Content production, editorial
2. Knowledge transfer
   • Organize kick-off meeting
   • Hold online roundtable
   • Hold workshops
3. Dissemination & follow-up
   • Produce and publish the weekly newsletter
   • Maintain regular communications and project promotion
   • External communication of lessons learned
   • Secure funding for continuation of the project

Target Groups:

• The consortium: Delfi (EST), Domani (ITA), Gazeta Wyborcza (POL), El Confidencial (ESP), hvg (HUN), Libération (FRA), n-ost (GER), Balkan Insight (BiH), Tagesspiegel (GER) and their 80 editors.
• The primary target audience of the newsletter – those all over Europe who are eager to widen their focus on European topics, are curious and open for a plurality of perspectives and are confident in English.
• The secondary target audience consists of the audiences of the media of the partner consortium that will be reached indirectly through the translation, re-use and republication of the newsletter content in the national publications in their respective languages.

Main implementer:

 N-OST – Netzwerk Fur Osteuropa-Berichterstattung EV (DE)

Partners: 

• Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – Balkan Insight (BiH)
• AS Ekspress Meedia – Delfi (EST),
• Editoriale Domani S.P.A. Domani (ITA),
• SA Agora, Gazeta Wyborcza (POL),
• El Confidencial – Titania Compania Editorial SL (ESP),
• Heti Vilaggazdasag Kiadoi Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag – HVG Kiado (HUN),
• Libération (FRA),
• Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GMBH – Tagesspiegel (GER).

 

 

 

 

Summary:

Local media outlets in six Balkan countries provide news, information and entertainment to over 13 million people who live outside the capital cities. These outlets face a number of threats to their independence and existence. As project research has shown, local media outlets, both online, broadcast and in print continue to be an important source of information for large numbers of people, as well as providing a mechanism for holding local government accountable.

The researchers identified a vibrant and crowded media scene with a wide variety of media outlets serving different communities. Some outlets have strong links with local NGOs and produce content focused on particular issues, including LGBTI rights, gender equality and rights for the Roma community. Others have a specific focus on local issues, such as environmental protection or protection of local archaeological sites. A number of outlets share information and news on local, cultural and social events, either for particular ethnic groups, or with the aim of supporting community cohesion. Some are very small scale, driven by the passion and commitment of a handful of individuals.

However, research also revealed their fundamental weakness. Advertising revenues overwhelmingly go to national news organisations, and local media are often left having to choose between accepting funding which undermines their independence and maintaining editorial independence but risking financial security. Funding from municipalities, individual owners and even advertising all come with the risk of clientelism, and there are examples where advertising revenue has been withdrawn as a result of certain content being published.

Other challenges, such as capacity, quality and resourcing are all related to this core issue of financial instability. Journalists are poorly paid, and many of the smaller outlets are run on a voluntary basis. This affects the pipeline of young journalists coming through, as young people choose more lucrative careers. Capacity issues mean that editorial choices are sometimes made in line with funder requirements and timelines rather than need. This diverts resources away from more complex stories that require more in-depth research and investigation.

Furthermore, women and men working in these local outlets perform a number of different roles and functions. This has an impact on quality, capacity and morale. In a context in which “fake news” and disinformation are widespread, independent local media provide a critical avenue for citizens to hold local government to account and to address issues in their local community. Many of the outlets surveyed already have some mechanism for interacting with their audiences and see this as an important means for ensuring their relevance and building trust.

Research reveals both a gender gap and a youth gap in terms of representation and visibility. Despite the majority of journalists in the region being women, media content continues to be highly gendered. Interviews with outlets has indicated that gender equality is not a priority issue for them. This gender-blind approach to reporting and management means that women will remain systemically disadvantaged in the workplace as well as in media content.

Young people consume media in a different way to the older generation. Accessing news through social media on smartphones, they are increasingly vulnerable to fake news and disinformation. Improving their engagement with independent media will help increase their resilience to harmful narratives, and could provide an outlet for more positive narratives, such as creating demand for more gender sensitive content. Engaged citizen reporting will give local news outlets an opportunity to better respond to the needs and concerns of young people, and youth media outlets can form mutually beneficial partnerships with young people who have a following on social media.

Considering these challenges, Supporting Greater Media Independence in six Balkan countries will support outlets to be more financially and structurally resilient, including improving gender quality in the workplace, and will enable them to produce more quality, relevant, gender-sensitive content that attracts and engages new audiences, including women, young people and marginalized groups. The project aims to achieve a level of relationships and standards in which media outlets and journalists report together with citizens, and not only about them.

Donor:

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office – Conflict, Stability and Security Fund

Main objective:

Audiences in six WB countries to engage with a diversified, independent and balanced media.

Main Activities:

1. Media accelerator
   • Technical assistance support to media outlets
   • Grants for implementation of business development plans
   • Improvement of media outlets’ digital tools and capacities
   • E-learning
2. Engaged Citizens Reporting

• • Grant funding
  • Capacity building (training and mentoring)
  • Promotion

3. Media incubator

• • Provision of technical and legal assistance
  • Capacity Building
  • Public debate and knowledge exchange
  • Emergency Fund

4. Youth media and young journalists

• • Support to youth media outlets
  • Young journalists’ traineeship
  • Summer school scholarships

5. Gender and media

• • Capacity building and training on gender sensitivity for men and women media professionals
  • Capacity building and training on safety for men and women journalists
  • Assessment of media outlets against a selection of UNESCO indicators
  • Strengthening networks and sharing good practice
  • Capacity building for men and women journalists and editors on gender sensitive reporting
  • Database of sector experts disaggregated by gender

6. Country specific interventions

Target Groups:

• Local media outlets and journalists in the Balkan countries

Main implementer:

The British Council

Partners:

Thomson Foundation and INTRAC