Category: News and Events

BIRN Macedonia Launches Ninth Call for Investigative Reports

BIRN Macedonia, together with the Centre for Civil Communications launched the ninth call for investigative stories on October 14th.

The call is part of the ‘Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation Between Media and Civil Society’, part of a USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.

In this call that closes on October 28th, selected journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story.

Journalists will have about three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also will have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN standards.

Topics for investigations include: health; cultural policy; education and youth; human rights; EU integration; good governance; inter-ethnic relations; environment issues; marginalised groups; quality of life.

The call only applies to journalists from Macedonia. More calls for investigative grants will follow.

Click for more information about the application procedure, with details in Macedonian.

BIRN Albania Launches Monthly Publication

On September 30th, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania launched the first issue of its monthly bi-lingual print publication Reporter.al, which features investigative reports, features, analysis and news from Albania and the region.

The print publication will be distributed for free through mail to more than 300 stakeholders in government institutions, foreign diplomatic missions in Tirana, international organizations, CSOs, and local media.

Together with the inaugural issue of Reporter.al, BIRN Albania has also published an accompanying special edition, which includes 25 investigations published by its reporters during the past year through its online portal.

The special edition includes investigations on abuse of power, organized crime, national security and terrorism, environment and human rights.

The print publication will be published at the beginning of each month and aims to bring BIRN Albania’s award-winning investigative reports and analysis directly to decision-makers in the country in order to stimulate action and debate on the issues of good governance, corruption and impunity.

The publication in print of Reporter.al comes with the generous support of the National Endowment for Democracy and the Balkan Trust for Democracy.

To download a copy of the first issue of Reporter.al click here.

To download a copy of the special edition of Reporter.al click here.   

BIRN Serbia Holds ‘Participatory Budgeting’ Workshops

The workshops at the Kopaonik mountain resort were attended by representatives of the finance and PR departments of ten Serbian municipalities.

How to involve the public in decisions about budgets for 2016? How to improve communication with citizens? These were just some of the questions that 18 local government representatives had the opportunity to get answers to at the workshops that were held from August 28 to 30.

The workshops looked at the weaknesses and strengths of the concept of participatory budgeting also, as well as activity plans for the future implementation of the participatory budgeting project.

Financial consultant Jovanka Manic gave advice for improving budgeting and Tatjana Vojtehovski spoke about communications, while the participants raised questions about both issues during discussions that followed.

The project includes nine municipalities – Sombor, Knjazevac, Trstenik, Pancevo, Zrenjanin, Pirot, Ruma, Sabac and Sremska Mitrovica.

BIRN Serbia Issues Data Journalism Handbook

BIRN Serbia has published the first handbook on data journalism in Serbia featuring tips, tricks and tutorials all in one place. The handbook offers all the basic knowledge for how to work with data and to conduct journalistic research from start to finish.

In this handbook is systematic knowledge and experience gained through various research projects. It contains answers to the question of what data journalism is, which are the most important tools to collect, analyse, organise and present information, how to get data in Serbia, as well as advice and practical examples from those who are already proficient in this new form of journalism .

The handbook is available in electronic formats: PDF, ePub and Mobi.

To read e-books in .epub and .mobi format, you need to install an electronic reader on your cellphone or tablet. One popular free applications for Android is Moon Reader.

To reading e-books on the iPhone or iPad, we recommend TotalReader.

BIRN Serbia Journalist Joins Newsweek Conference Panel

Slobodan Georgiev, a journalist from BIRN Serbia, was a panel member at the ‘Challenges of Investigative Journalism in the Contemporary World’ discussion on September 3.

The panel was part of a conference on media freedom organized by Newsweek magazine in Belgrade which brought together more than 200 participants including journalists, editors and media experts.

Georgiev pointed out that investigative reporters can face problems if they publish stories that the authorities find uncomfortable.

“The government shaped the media environment in the country and if you do some kind of monitoring or research what the government does and what the people who sit in government do, you find yourself in trouble,” Georgiev told the conference.

He said that after BIRN Serbia published a report on a government contract for pumping flood water from the Serbia’s Tamava mine – which was criticised by the authorities – other media took the government’s line.

“When the Prime Minister had a problem with us, fellow journalists didn’t address the issue about our story, but about who pays us,” he said.

At the conference, BIRN Regional Network Director Gordana Igrić moderated a conversation about crime and organ trafficking in Kosovo with Michael Montgomery from the Center for Investigative Reporting in the United States.

Civil Activists Seek Expanded Role in Balkans’ Future

Civil sector groups from six Western Balkans countres urged their political leaders to secure freedom of expression and media independence, also calling for more of a role in their countries’ EU integration processes.

As leaders from the Western Balkans and the EU gathered in Vienna for the second leg of the Berlin Process, about 200 civil society activists and members of think tanks and the media discussed their proposals and concerns for the region.

In joint recommendations presented by BIRN’s Macedonia Country Director and Balkan Insight’s managing editor, Ana Petruseva, on Thursday, activicts urged the Western Balkan states to continue their modernization process both in their own states and in the wider region.

The recomentations were presented to the Western Balkans leaders and EU officials and tackled three main topics – regional cooperation, freedom of expression and creating jobs and prosperity.

Civil society representatives voiced their concerns and put forward concrete demands, saying that greater civil society involvement could help push forward  EU integration and reforms.

“Governments of Western Balkans should accept the civil society sector as an equal partner in the EU integration process and commit to funding civil society initiatives and networks that delivered tangible results,” the recomendations read. 

Civil society actors say they can contribute toward policies and strategies for enhancing regional cooperation in the area of social development and help improve the institutional and legal environment for civil society regionally.

The recommendations said that improving mutual understanding, exploring and discussing difficult episodes in their common history remain important aspects of regional cooperation in which civil society can and should play an active role.

The recomendations emphasize the role and potential of civil society for EU integration,  regional cooperation and energy or infrastructure projects. 

The recomendations also urge Balkan leaders to secure freedom of expression, the independence of the media and greater legal protection and working conditions for journalists.  

“The  legal protection of journalists needs to be increased as well as their working conditions, improved through the social dialogue with employers, which would overall diminish their precariousness in working relations. Media owners should adhere to existing laws in regard to employment and working conditions”, the documents reads, adding that public broadcasters must be independent and regulatory bodies need to become free from direct or indirect government influence.  

In the third discussed area – job creation and the labour market, civil activists urged the region’s governments to focus on re-starting production, modernising and supporting the agricultural sector and improve consumer protection.

The Civil Society Forum of the Western Balkans Summit Vienna 2015 is a joint initiative of ERSTE Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and Karl Renner Institute, in close cooperation with the Austrian Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.

Sixth BIRN Summer School opens in Albania

BIRN’s summer school for investigative reporting opened in Durres, Albania, with a plea to journalists to channel their curiosity.

Blake Morrison, investigative projects editor at Reuters in New York and the school’s lead trainer, kicked off a packed programme urging journalists to “use our skills of observation, be curious”. 

Morrison detailed how journalist can pinpoint sources and find key information during their investigations.

“People(Sources) will believe you if you really try to understand what the problem is,” he added.

Morrison also explained the importance of careful planning in complex stories.

BIRN journalist and investigations’ editor Lawrence Marzouk presented the school’s investigative fund, which provides grants to promising story ideas.

He said that participants will be split into groups and develop investigative proposals to present to a panel of judges on the final day. Two or three stories will receive funding from a pot of around 6,000 euro so that participants can carry out their investigation.

“I will help you to develop the story,” Lawrence added.

Mar Cabra, who heads ICIJ’s Data & Research Unit, outlined how journalists can find data and the importance of data journalism. She revealed how she had used official statistics to expose the worrying use of psychotropic drugs among children in the US.

“I decided to check how many drugs children in foster care in the state of Texas are prescribed and their use of psychotropic drugs,” Cabra said.

She presented a selection of groundbreaking data stories and emphasized that we need to think about data in every story, because “data is everywhere”.

“Try to do data as much as possible, and not only for clicks, use it for investigation,” she said.

In the afternoon, Philipp Grüll’s documentary “Tito’s Murder Squads – The Killing of Yugoslav Exiles in Germany” was screened.

The first day’s working sessions concluded with a discussion about the use of confidential files with Philipp Grüll, Anuska Delic, investigative and data journalist from Slovenian daily newspaper Delo, Besar Likmeta, BIRN Albanian editor, and Marija Ristic, Balkan Transitional Justice assistant editor.

The sixth BIRN Summer School brings together young journalists from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Austria, Kosovo, Palestine, Germany and Georgia to learn from leading media experts how to use social media to uncover crimes, skills for cracking open offshore companies and how to make reluctant sources talk.

The Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2015 is organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in cooperation with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung  and with support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), Open Society Foundations and USAID Macedonia.

BIRN Macedonia Launches “Skopje 2014 Uncovered” Database

On the anniversary of the devastating Skopje earthquake in 1963, BIRN Macedonia published an online interactive database “Skopje 2014 Uncovered” documenting the new classical look of Skopje in the past five years.

When the grand revamp of the Macedonian capital was first announced back in 2010, the project, known as “Skopje 2014”, envisaged the construction of some 40 monuments, sculptures, facades and new buildings.

Fast forward to 2015 and the number of buildings and monuments has tripled.
The price tag of Skopje’s new look has meanwhile also shot up, far surpassing the initially announced figure of €80 million, to around €560 million, a BIRN investigation shows.

The eight-month  investigation draws on data procured through the Access to Public Information Act, the official web page of the Public Procurement Bureau, the “Skopje 2014” audit and a joint report by the government, the Skopje municipality of Centar and the Ministry of Culture, presented after the 2013 local elections.

The “Skopje 2014 Uncovered” database documents and maps works built or under construction  with the official contracts, authors’ fees, annexes and statistics on most contracted builders, sculptors, architects and foundries that participated in the project. As of July 26, this data is available to the public in Macedonian language. An English version will be available soon. An official launch and promotion event will be held in September.

The online database is available at: http://skopje2014.prizma.birn.eu.com/

More details on the investigation and the results are available here.

BIRN Albania Journalists Win EU Investigative Award

Three BIRN Albania journalists were among the top four winners of a prestigious EU award.

Two BIRN Albania Journalists, Aleksandra Bogdani and Flamur Vezaj, won first prize in the EU Investigative Journalism Award 2014 for Albania contest, for their series of three articles on the recruitment of Albanians to fight for radical Islamists in Syria.

The articles were published in reporter.al news portal and were republished in other newspapers and newsportals.

Second prize went to Juli Ristani, from the investigative program “Fiks Fare”, on Top Channel TV, for her story on the judicial treatment of drug users and smugglers.

Third place went to Besar Likmeta, also from BIRN Albania, for his investigation into the use of public funds by the previous government to denigrate the leader of the opposition.

The article was published in Balkaninsight.com and republished in other media.

Lutfi Dervishi, chair of the jury, said that many of the applications were of high quality and the jury had been faced with a difficult task. Noting that many of the winning journalists were young, he called it a good sign for the future of investigative journalism in Albania.

The awards ceremony was held on July 16th at the Tirana Times Bookshop. A total of 19 investigative stories were nominated for this year’s EU Award in Albania. The jury consisted of five media professionals and civil society representatives: Lutfi Dervishi, a media expert, Iris Luarasi, professor of journalism, Arben Muka, Deutsche Welle correspondent, Aleksander Cipa, head of Union of Albanian Journalists, and Zef Preci, director of the Center for Economic Research.

“Investigative journalism in particular can play an incredible role in exposing wrongdoing, inspire reform, and ultimately change people’s lives,” the EU Head of Delegation, Romana Vlahutin, said.

“I firmly believe that these awards we are announcing today will further contribute to the strengthening of media standards and ultimately become a benchmark for media quality in Albania,” he added.

A Unique Voice and an Inspiration

Let me congratulate you on your 10th anniversary and wish you all the best for your next decade and hopefully more years of contributing to investigative journalism and media freedom in the Balkans. 

You were a baby that grew very fast and became a strong, independent and self-confident woman, holding up a mirror to those in power in and around the Balkans – producing stories based on facts and thorough investigations. Well done!

I had been following and reading you from your first days, when I was working as a Western Balkans correspondent for German-speaking newspapers in Sarajevo from 2005 to 2010. You were always a source of inspiration and of course of reliable information. Thank you for that. Later, when I joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland in 2010 and started working in different countries of the region supporting civilian peace-building efforts, I met you again.

You were present everywhere in the region; the cooperation of your correspondents and editors had intensified even more than it had already been the case before. I was impressed by your performance, not only as a reader and consumer, which I already used to be for years, but now also as a partner and representative of one of BIRN’s donor countries, Switzerland. This immediately put me in a dilemma. In Berne, capital of Switzerland, my colleagues at the Ministry were often confused because they thought that I was speaking about them when mentioning BIRN. Berne and BIRN sound the same in English! That created funny confusion so many times.

So, dear BIRN, you have become and will remain the Balkans BIRN for me – also in terms of pronunciation – although your stories are also published in English and therefore reach many people outside the Balkans as well. This is good and much wanted. Both audiences need BIRN: those who read, listen to and watch your stories in one of the Balkan languages but also those all over the world who want to be informed about what is going on in and around the Balkans.

One more thing is great with you among many others, a thing that makes you unique. You were founded and have been led by female directors over all these years. This is unique not only in the Balkans but probably worldwide. In addition to that, so many women, side by side with equally talented male colleagues, contribute as professionals to your success every day. Congratulations!

Dear BIRN, I commend and thank you for being what you are: an invaluable contribution to a better-informed society in the Balkans and a better-informed world about the Balkans. This helps connecting people and ideas! Your independent voice is needed more than ever. Happy birthday, BIRN!

The Author is currently working for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland in Kyiv, Ukraine