Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
On March 10th, 2017, BIRN hosted a group of students, primarily studying political science, who were participating in a workshop organized by “Dialogue Across Borders: Overcoming Borders through European Integration.” The project specifically aims to facilitate dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, while assisting in the normalization of relations between the two.
CIJA US, in cooperation with BIRN and the Foundation Dokukino will organize a series of capacity building activities in the Western Balkans in 2017 for activists, journalists, bloggers, educators and other online (and offline) influencers to help develop online communication strategies to respond to dangerous content.
Are you concerned about the negative and dangerous online messages that are damaging to individuals and communities around you? Worried about conversations influenced by fake news, disinformation, trolling, and various forms of propaganda used for radicalization and recruitment purposes?
Would you like to contribute to making social media more positive, constructive and safe for everyone? Whether you have ideas on the backburner or you are already working on a campaign, initiative or a digital project through your organization, as part of your job, or in your free time, to tackle these problems in an online space, we would like to hear from you!
Workshops will be held in five Western Balkan countries as follows:
Skopje, Macedonia May 18-19
Pristina, Kosovo May 22-23
Tirana, Albania May 25-26
Belgrade, Serbia May 29-30
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina June 1-2
*Regional Hackathon in Albania: July 5 – 7
Participants in the program will have access to one-on-one mentorship following the Hackathon, which will be an opportunity to further develop promising campaign concepts, as well as seed funding for the most promising initiatives.
During this workshop, participants will:
– Develop an online communication strategy to respond to dangerous content;
– Learn audience profiling and targeting techniques;
– Practice message development strategies; and
– Receive feedback and coaching from dangerous content response experts.
If this sounds like the workshop for you, please complete this short application by April 16, 2017.
Accepted applicants will be notified via email by April 20, 2017 with additional details.
Please contact [email protected] with questions or to request an application in Albanian, Bosnian-Serbian or Macedonian language. *Applications will be accepted in English or local languages
Workshops will be held in English with translation to local languages provided, as well as transportation and accommodation for those traveling from outside of the capital city.
Application form could be found here.
After BIRN BiH presented three stories relating to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s wartime past at the‘True Stories Market’ at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2016, Al Jazeera decided to produce a documentary based on one of them.
The first ‘True Stories Market’ was held at the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival as part of the Dealing with the Past project, intending to serve as an inspiration to directors, producers, film and television professionals to turn genuine and rarely-told stories into feature and documentary films.
BIRN BiH was informed that Al Jazeera will make a documentary about one man’s daily search for bones of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, story we presented at one of our TV Justice episodes. BIRN BiH will provide all the necessary support to the Al Jazeera team and help the realization of this project.
To celebrate International Fact-Checking day, BIRN was privileged to end the month of March by hosting a Kosovo diplomat and three foreign diplomats currently serving their missions in Kosovo.
On March 31st, two days before the international day celebrating fact-checkers, BIRN Kosovo hosted German Ambassador Angelika Viets, followed by the Kosovo Ambassador to Serbia, Valdet Sadiku. Following these sessions, BIRN warmly welcomed the Head of the EU’s Office in Kosovo and the EU Special Representative Nataliya Apostolova and the Italian Ambassador to Kosovo, Piero Cristoforo Sardi.
The guest speakers affirmed the notion—which BIRN continuously cultivates—that in the complex world we live in, facts do matter. The guests explicitly proclaimed the need for accurate and detailed evidence in journalism, politics, and everyday life.
BIRN, along with other organizations, was also congratulated for its continuous demonstrated commitment to the ethical principles of truthfulness, straightforwardness, transparency, and accountability.
Ambassador Viets openly spoke about the current state affairs and affirmed Kosovo’s considerable achievements and its collaborative relationship with the EU.
Ambassador Sadiku discussed with BIRN about the dialogue, reconciliation and the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. He applauded the well-articulated questions raised by BIRN’s staff, which he openly answered.
BIRN’s last guest speakers of the day, Ambassador Apostolova and Ambassador Sardi, were highly attentive and receptive towards BIRN’s questions throughout the session. Ambassador Apostolova and Ambassador Sardi presented their insights on the role of EU within the current state affairs, and both stressed the importance of Kosovo’s ties with the EU.
BIRN was honored to be visited by such important figures in Kosovo society. Each guest applauded BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova for taking part in the International Fact-Checking Network, IFCN, by the Poynter Institute. They agreed that the impartial and transparent verification of facts is a powerful instrument for accountable journalism.
Representatives of the Reporters Without Borders – Germany and BIRN Serbia visited the Adria Media Group publishing house as part of the Media Ownership Monitor project.
During the visit, the participants discussed freedom of expression, competition and media ownership in Serbia.
Representatives of the German branch of Reporters Without Borders came to Serbia in order to learn about media scene in the country as part of the project they are implementing with BIRN Serbia.
Apart from Adria Media Group, representatives of the two organisations will visit various relevant media and journalists’ associations and talk with reporters and editors about the conditions in which media operate in Serbia.
The Media Ownership Monitor project is intended to reveal the trends towards concentration of media ownership, enabling the public to make more educated choices as media consumers. Ideally, greater awareness will result in regulatory countermeasures in the medium term.
BIRN Serbia will conduct the media ownership monitoring in Serbia using Reporters Without Borders’ methodology.
The results will be presented after the completion of the monitoring, which is planned for June 2017.
In cooperation with the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia and Slavko Curuvija Foundation, BIRN Serbia is implementing a project aimed at creating the conditions for the development of free and diverse media that work in the public interest.
The new project, entitled Public Money for the Public Interest – Supporting a Civil Society Initiative for the Public Interest, was created as a response to the problem of the insufficient involvement of civil society in public dialogue about media policy, as well as the downward trend in media freedom which directly affects the development of a democratic society.
The project is intended to help strengthen civil society organisations so they can influence the creation, implementation and evaluation of media policy.
A systematic approach to the impact of the legal framework is planned, as well as the improvement of media practice in the field of public interest representation, while advocating public support for the proposed changes.
The project will be implemented in Belgrade and other Serbian cities until December 2019 with the support of the European Union.
More information about the project, activities and goals can be found here.
On February 21st, 2017, a final conference was organized in Prishtina in order to reflect on the work and results of the “Strengthening multi-ethnic dialogue among journalists in Kosovo” project. The final conference focused on promoting the improvement of inter-ethnic relations and conflict resolution by altering the way media organizations in Kosovo operate.
The conference gathered 40 participants, including journalists, editors, journalism academics, media-related institutions and so forth. It revealed that there is readiness from all communities to collaborate and cooperatively report on issues of common interest.
As a result of several tasks that took place before the final conference, reflections were gathered on what had been done to improve cooperation between journalists from different communities in Kosovo. For instance, all journalists representing the partners of the project, such as BIRN Kosovo, the Press Council, Mreza TV, the Association of Journalists in Kosovo, and other journalists from Serbian-majority municipalities were divided into groups to write about common issues concerning different regions in Kosovo.
The results were achieved as part of the activities that were attended by journalists from the different communities, which made it easier for them to commonly discuss what to work on. As the project was supported by the European Union Special Representative, they visited EU-funded projects and factories being implemented in the north in order to get a better idea of how the EU contributed to improving the lives of people in certain areas of Kosovo.
The targets of the project were productive in a way that they identified the issues that the journalists from Kosovo-Albanian and Kosovo-Serbian regions face. In the future, the outcomes of this project will serve as a fruitful means to pay attention to the lessons learned, and realize that only through strengthened teamwork can the media landscape in Kosovo be improved.
On January 25th, 2017, another debate as part of the “Strengthening multi-ethnic dialogue among journalists in Kosovo” project was organized in the municipality of Gjilan. It gathered 34 journalists and editors from Albanian and Serbian media organizations that operate in Kosovo.
This activity was an initiative to concretely identify the issues between journalists from Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb communities. This debate was named “Cooperation between journalists from the South and North on issues and problems concerning the communities,” and resulted in potential ideas about future solutions for the media landscape around Kosovo. For instance, this debate revealed that Kosovo Serb journalists coming from Gjilan were not receiving adequate information from the municipality. As a result, the participants kindly showed willingness to improve this level of cooperation with their colleagues from other communities.
Another aspect of this project was to organize a retreat in another region of Kosovo, which took place in the municipalities of Prizren and Gracanica. This retreat took place on January 27th and 28th and it gathered 30 journalists. The retreat lasted for two days, with tasks such as visiting different significant parts of the municipalities and exchanging ideas about cultural perspectives on how to contribute to better integration and collaboration between different communities in Kosovo.
The main task of this retreat was to identify the topics that the journalists could collaborate on. As a result, the group was divided into three teams after being combined from different backgrounds. The issues identified to write about included accommodation of returnees in Roma Mahalla (Mitrovica South), pollution of the Ibar River, the treatment of stray dogs in different municipalities, social and medical care for elderly people from non-majority municipalities, and joint Kosovo-Albanian and Kosovo-Serbian markets. Journalists who were a part of this discussion represented Albanian, Serb, Bosnjak and Roma communities.
These two activities contributed to teambuilding between journalists from various communities, to be of future use for tackling issues of common interest and reaching the targets of the project as a whole.
On January 16th, 2017, a debate was organized in North Mitrovica at the EU Information and Cultural Centre, which gathered 30 participants including journalists, editors, and media experts. The participants represented different parts of Kosovo, including the capital Prishtina, other municipalities, Mitrovica North and South, and other Serb-majority municipalities.
Following the objectives of the “Strengthening multi-ethnic dialogue among journalists in Kosovo” project—whose main goal was to strengthen the collaboration between Kosovo journalists from a variety of backgrounds—several activities were organized in order to identify the needs and come up with solutions, including this debate.
The discussion “Enhancing inter-ethnic dialogue and collaboration between journalists in Kosovo” was headed to tackle issues that participants found necessary to find solutions for. It would further lead to enhancing cooperation and understanding between Serb and Albanian communities in Kosovo, so that any responsible association would better represent the voice of all journalism groups in Kosovo, regardless of background. The debate thoroughly included talks on improving the cooperation between journalists so that any activity to take place in the future would receive equal contribution from all sides.
This activity was part of a collaborative project between BIRN Kosovo, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, the Press Council and Mreza TV, a Serbian language media outlet in Kosovo. Representatives from these partners were also invited to the debate, along with representatives from EUSR, the Kosovo Media Commission, and so forth.
This debate brought positive results to the objectives of the project, as it helped identify future proposed activities to be implemented, and led to close cooperation between Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb communities. Despite the identification of issues that could hinder the implementation of the project, such as language barriers and permission of journalists from their superiors to take part in certain endeavors, the activities revealed that there is a strong willingness from journalists from both sides to socialize and exchange ideas for a good cause.
At the Faculty of Law in Prishtina, British Ambassador to Kosovo, Ruairi O’Connell discussed the current state of affairs and justice in Kosovo with future lawyers and judges.
On Tuesday, the British diplomat opened the discussion with students from the Faculty of Law – future judges, prosecutors and lawyers – with a single, straight-forward proposal: “Do not become corrupted.”
For the last two years, O’Connell served as an ambassador of Great Britain to a country that is listed by international reports as one of the most corrupt, especially regarding the judicial system.
“Kosovo needs a new generation of lawyers. It is disturbing to witness the level of corruption operating in Kosovo. It is almost unbelievable,” he said. “Do not place a price on yourself with which you can be bought.”
O’Connell also commented on the roles and power of foreign diplomats, including himself, saying it was limited in terms of reforming the current political class.
“I haven’t done anything to remove Kosovo’s corrupted class. I am not responsible for deciding who will be a prime minister or an MP in Kosovo. You, on the other hand, have the power to vote. You have more power than I do here. I don’t have a drop of power, I can only speak for Great Britain,” said the British ambassador.
In many court cases, he recalled, the outcome favoured the political class, such as in the case of Sami Lushtaku, the mayor of Skenderaj.
“Let’s discuss the case of Mr. Lushtaku, who unfortunately was released from the correctional facility and did not stay in prison. He was allowed to go to the hospital, to stay there for a bit and then go home. When we talk about principles it is easy, but when we discuss specific cases, it’s not always the same,” he said.
“Judges need to act according to the law, impartial to the very end,” added O’Connell.
Although nepotism is an apparent problem in Kosovo, he also added that it does not mean that Kosovars are more susceptible to corruption than others.
“The problem lies with the system that was created shortly after the war. As such, Kosovo has not fought for its independence to only then be ruled by others,” he said.